There’s a “to stretch or not to stretch” debate that’s been going on for awhile, so while you may have a point, I have a point as well. If you stretch cold muscles and do it too much, you can pull or tear the muscles. If you do more dynamic stretches, it’s helpful. But everyone I talk to who talks about stretching means the “stretch and hold for 20-30 seconds” (toe touching, calf stretching, etc.).
You’re right. I flipped the run and walk portion of it. I’ll correct that this evening.
What I mean by inconsistent is that it does things like jump from 10.5 to 16 between weeks 3 and 4, which is a huge leap for people with (theoretically) 3 weeks worth of training so far. Then week 5 starts them off lower than week 3? And by the end of that week they’re supposed to run 20 uninterrupted minutes? No wonder people can’t complete this.
I can’t say that my version is perfect, but I’m of the (not so humble opinion) that it’s superior.
While the total running time between 3 and 4 is greater, what you’re doing is very gradually increasing the total amount of time you’re running at a stretch. In week three, you’re walking to recover from the runs the same amount of time you’re running. That switches in week four. You’re building endurance and reducing the amount of time necessary to recover.
Week five starts out with less total running time, but each running stretch is longer. It’s not so much about how much total time you spend running as it is how long you can run at a stretch and how long you need to recover.
Train as you see fit, but there are a lot of people who have used this program successfully. I don’t know where you get the “can’t complete” idea. Have you read the other threads here?
Honestly, no. I’ve recently found them though, and I’ll be looking through them. I never said that no one can do the C25k Program. I just think it’s quite understandable that many people hit a block or that it takes them quite a bit longer than 9 weeks to accomplish the goals as they’re laid out.
While I did find those odd quirks in the schedule, I surmised they were there for particular reasons as Solfy pointed out.
I think the biggest issue is internal–getting past the mental block that tries to imply that you can’t run that far or that long. You can do it.
I recall when I started this program thinking there is no way I could do this, yet 2-3 months later there I was doing a 30 minute run. That first week when I was running for one minute with ninety seconds of walking seemed difficult, but now that seems ridiculuous.
Week 5 was the most difficult pyschologically for me. The jumps from 5 minutes to 8 minutes to 20 minutes at the end seemed like it was undoable. But you know what, I did it! After that I knew I could do the program to completion.
While I am ignorant of the stretching debate I am rather certain that not stretching, for anybody not accustomed to regular exercise or physical activity, is a recipe for disaster. Though I will agree that rigorous, excessive, or improper stretching (which a sedentary person could easily commit) is unnecessary and can cause damage. Also, I will reiterate that a brisk walk can count towards warming up and stretching - in fact a couple minutes of stretching after a brisk walk would probably be best.
Regardless, for any “unfit” person who is proposing to begin physical exercise, stretching is good advice.
I think the problem is that many couchers just aren’t used to actually pushing themselves. I did the C25K in 9 weeks and yes there were points in there that were difficult, but I got through them. It’s not supposed to be easy, real exercise is not easy, it is, after all, putting your body under stress so that it makes various changes to be better cope with future stress.
BTW I have a BMI of 30.5, so it’s not like I was generally athletic but a bit out of shape.
Juniper200, any updates? I’d love to hear updates from any of the other people in the program as well.