djplong

Same story is happening to me in Week 5. Tomorrow will be my 3rd crack at W5D1. Fortunately, the apps I'm using allow me to see the performance improvements that I might not see without the tracking going on. That's what's keeping me motivated.

I noticed the same thing. Haven't found a setting.

I couldn't agree more. I had a hard time the first day but I made it. I saw the schedule for Week 2 and didn't know if I could do it. Week 3 seemed an impossible jump. Each time, I bulled through it and made it. Week 4 finally got me when I just couldn't do the repeated 5 minute runs. I kept hammering at it - slowing down at times, looking for flatter neighborhoods to run in and, eventually (last Sunday) I finished Week 4 even though it really took 2 weeks. Yesterday was the first of Week 5 and, again, I couldn't quite finish the multiple 5 minute runs. That wasn't a failure as there were still improvements from the previous run (I also track progress with MapMyRun+) and I'll be at it again on Saturday.

I've had success repeating weeks when I've had problems. For me, Week 4 was when I hit the wall. It took 5 tries to be able to do both of the 5-minute runs in that week, but I eventually made it.

Elsa, you're in the same boat I'm in. This was something I was thinking about and the runDisney web pages provided me with all the more motivation. I'll be signing up for the Walt Disney World Marathon weekend in January - though I'm only signing up for the 5K and 10K. I'm hoping to couple of smaller events once I 'graduate' the 5K and 10K apps but I have that weekend in January staring me in the face now. I know, it's 8 months away, but still.. It's there.

About six pounds in just over a month. I started at 197 and I'm just under 5' 8" - 191 after my last workout. My target is around 150. I just keep imagining how much easier running will be when I'm not carrying this 45 pound backpack on my front.

It took FIVE tries but I finally managed to get through W4D1! I even managed to do it despite still being a bit sore from some woodsy trails (with hills) that I walked through the day before with my wife. I kept hacking at it. Finding flatter courses, trying different pacing... This time I was in a rush - had a time limit on errands that I *had* to get done that day but if I did them first, I'd have no time for the run and I *refused* to break the schedule. So, out I went. I wasn't sure I'd make the first 5:00 jog (in all the previous attempts, I'd only succeeded in a 5:00 jog ONCE) but when I saw that I only had 20 seconds left, that helped me bull through. The 3:00 jogs weren't too difficult, though I was breathing heavy. Then there as the final 5:00 jog... I swear I'm not making this up. Just as I got the 'ding' for the final segment, my iPhone started playing the soundtrack to "Gladiator". That gave me a little more impetus to finish - and I did - slowing my pace a bit to try and stretch what little strength I had left. I missed the last 10 seconds because of an uphill incline making the sore back and small cramp in my side a bit too much but I kept a faster walking pace before the cooldown for those few seconds. In the meantime, I've looked for ways of trying to build up my endurance - something to do on the 'off' days and I may have found it. I went into the basement and repaired the old NordicTrak ski machine that I inherited from my adoptive mother 25 years ago. With a tablet for entertainment during a workout and a now WORKING speedometer/odometer to track progress, I think I have a methodology that will help me build up to the forthcoming 20-minute jogs. Between this program, the other tools and a very supportive wife, I still feel I'm going to get through this!

I've tried W4D1 4 times now and I've only succeeded in making the 5 minute jog ONCE. I made some progress towards finishing but backslid a couple of days ago. The weather is getting better and there's a park where I tried jogging for the first time yesterday and it was more pleasant, flatter, but still couldn't quite do it (there's still snow in some areas). Oddly enough, for the first time, my right knee is aching when I come down stairs. I am NOT letting this get me down. I'm just glad I haven't signed up for any races anytime soon and the only commitment I have is next January!

Ruth, I'm using an iPhone 6 Plus. For music, I'm either playing from my playlists or I'm streaming via SiriusXM. I run the C25K Pro app to get the "start running"/"start walking" prompts. I also use MapMyRun+ to get more details on each session (I basically hit 'start' to both apps once I get the music going). MapMyRun+ gives me splits, an elevation graph, a speed graph and the last two superimposed on each other. The apps are feeding into Apple's Health app via the HealthKit API which helps me get out on those days when I just plain don't want to - but I want to see the numbers go up so I go out.

FWIW, I'll be making my 3rd attempt at W4D1 tomorrow. My 2nd attempt resulted in me going further and faster than the first but still not doing the 5-minute jog. I'm going to keep at this until I conquer it (hopefully tomorrow). I'm *really* glad I have the right apps so that I can get accurate measurements otherwise I might not have seen the progress from the first to second attempts and it was that progress that encouraged me.

Still didn't make it.. But I *did* make progress. I managed to go a around 4:15 on the first 5:00 jog (as opposed to 3:30), only lost 20 seconds on the second 3:00 jog and broke up the final 5:00 on time but with enough energy for a decent kick at the end. Made it about 400m further and lasted 2 minutes longer before reaching the house. I'll take a third crack at W4D1 on Sunday.

That's what I'm going to do tomorrow. The other thing is that I'll pick a flatter route.

Tried to do W4D1 yesterday and, for the first time, couldn't keep pace. I was 3:30 into the first 5:00 jog and a right turn showed a steep incline that I just couldn't do. I went back down to walking. Kinda lost my form after that. Jogged as much as I could but the 2nd 5:00 segment was a jog-walk-jog segment. The good news is that I went faster and further than W3D3. What I'm wondering is what I should do tomorrow when my next scheduled session comes up. Should I go back to Week 3 or re-try W4D1? One caveat is that I seem to still be suffering from some upper respiratory infection (been coughing for a couple weeks but seeing the doctor last week helped ease a lot of that - but I'm not 100% over it yet). I'd like to think that it was just the fact that my lungs might not be at 100%. Advice? Thanks in advance...

Well, I tried the free version of the app and it worked perfectly. It gave me splits via voice alerts (I'm glad they didn't come during C25K's alerts) and the map and charts after I finished the session were fantastic. This one's a keeper. I'll definitely be upgrading to the paid app.

...and I somehow managed to do it again today. The 3-minute jogs (I can't bring myself to call them 'runs') were more difficult as I had some uphills to conquer - the 2nd of them I honestly didn't think I was going to make it but I just kept going until I heard that 'ding', For what it's worth, I had a playlist going on and MapMyRun in the background. I *did* notice that the session totals weren't recorded by C25K and W3D3 didn't get marked as 'completed'. I don't know if having 3 things going on at once was too much to ask. Next up are those 5 minute jogs in Week 4. My schedule says Wednesday and I still have no idea how I'll get through it. All I know is I'm going to try.

Well, I was a beginner, currently in Week 3 (Day 2 later today) and, speaking as a 52-year-old desk jockey who was born crippled and never ran - I say "Yes, it is". Keeping track of how far I've run on these first couple of weeks has shown me that, if I make it through the rest of this program, a 5K isn't just possible - it's definite.

RIght now, I'm in Week 3 and I'm using a 1km-lap course I mapped out on Google maps to see how far these workouts go. I looked at the distance recorded in C25K Pro but, even though I would end a session at nearly the same point, I had wildly different distances recorded in the app that didn't even come close to matching what I had from Google. As the weather gets better and I start running longer, I might get bored with this same lap (ok, I *will* get bored and that's going to defeat my purpose). I was thinking of using MapMyRun to see if that would accurately track distance. My only immediate concern is whether or not it might conflict with the other 2 apps running. To this point, I've been using C25K for the voice prompts and that has worked perfectly when playing music that's on my iPhone from a playlist and "mostly good" when playing music on my SiriusXM app (internet streaming). It doesn't seem to pick up the song/artist but that's no biggie so long as I can still pause/skip as needed. Has anyone used MapMyRun in conjunction with C25K *and* a music app going concurrently? I'd like to be able to keep track of my distance and time when I'm not on a prepared course and, say, just running in the park until the C25K app says the party's over. Comments? Reviews? Advice? Thanks in advance...

I never thought I'd ever be in this position. If you ask ANYONE who knows me - especially my adult kids (ages 22 & 27) - they'd tell you how LUDICROUS the thought of ME becoming a runner is... I got knocked on my back by some kind of upper respiratory infection - the last time I missed 3 days of work was - geez, I have to think - tonsilitis at age 24 and the surgery kept me out. I'm still on drugs for this but I started feeling more human today and I'd already missed my scheduled Wednesday session. I didn't know if I'd have anything in the tank to run today - much less stepping up to a new week. Looking at a 3 minute jog when I'd only done 90 seconds seemed like quite a leap. ...after all, the last leap was 50% from 60 to 90 seconds. ...this is a 100% increase. I never jogged 3 solid minutes IN MY LIFE. Until today. AND I DID IT TWICE - while still recovering from whatever the heck infected my breathing. (Strange that I was coughing after the run and some time before but not DURING) I honestly can't believe I'm doing this. The real key is sticking with it. I already have hotel reservations for next January's races and I'm about to buy some of the plane tickets (the airline's calendar doesn't go out far enough for the return part of the trip). Technology helped keep me on the couch and now technology is helping me get (and stay) off of it!

I can't say I've conquered the motivation boogie man but I know what got me started and what has kept me going through 2 interruptions (blizzards and getting sick). It started when I bought an iPhone 6 Plus and, as weeks went by, I was kinda interested in the Health app as it was tracking the number of steps, distance walked and run and number of flights of stairs I'd climbed every day. It got me to walking more. Then, for some reason - I have no idea what started it - I caught sight of pictures of some finisher medals for races during the Walt Disney World Marathon. It was almost the same time I stumbled across the C25K program. That made me wonder if my body would allow it. Well, I'm keeping track of how far I'm going - recording it - and started looking at some races I MIGHT be able to do later this year. Now, it helps that I'm a big Disney fan from way back, so thinking of perhaps getting the finisher medals next January for the 5K and 10K races seems to be enough motivation for me. I've been a geek all my life so, in a way, it was the numbers that got me thinking about it.

(In my best 12-step voice) Hello. My name is David. And I'm a couch potato. (back to normal) I'm 52, twice divorced, remarried and things are going great in my life for a change. But there has been one annoyance that I can't seem to get rid of and that's my weight. I'm just under 5' 8" and when I saw that I had crested 190 pounds, even though I had a clean bill of health, I was wondering what was in my future. I wanted to do SOMEthing to improve myself but nothing ever stuck. Gyms were too intimidating, running was too painful and I never lasted long. I had a VERY limited amount of success with some Your Shape, a fitness program on the Xbox 360 with Kinect but that didn't last too long. I keep looking back and wonder where the strength I had as a kid went. I was born crippled and grew up in casts, crutches, braces, wheelchairs - you name it. After major surgery when I was about 6, I hear the doctor tell my mother I'd never walk again. I was walking (in casts, on crutches) the next day - 3 days later without crutches. It wasn't easy - I wouldn't have my first "normal" pair of shoes until I was about 12. Where did that kid go? After my first divorce I dropped from somewhere over 200 pounds to 135 (I know I'll never see that again, but...). Then I married the worst greatest cook - kids came along and all the stuff I was doing to keep somewhat active fell by the wayside. Getting divorced again after 19 years of marriage and depression didn't help. Here I am now, married to a wonderful woman for the past 4 1/2 years and I want to last longer. So how? It started with a new phone. I bought a pair of iPhone 6+ handsets a while after they were released. After a while, I noticed the graphs in the Health app. I knew I could still walk distances (it hadn't been too long since I walked across the neck of Cape Cod and back) and I started paying attention to how much I walked during an average day. I'd notice things like how LONG the building is where I work - a half mile from my cube to my colleagues cube and back. After a while, I mapped out a 5K route around my neighborhood and started occasionally walking it, just to see the spike graph on my phone. I don't remember HOW I ran across the C25K idea. I know that I was perusing the runDisney site and saw the finisher medals that they gave out for their 5K, 10K, half-marathon and marathon. I started to think, heck, I can WALK a 5K - could I run one? I didn't know if my body would let me. I read all the stuff from C25K that said how THIS program was made to minimize the risk of injury. I bought the app package. I bought proper shoes. I started. Then we got socked in with over 7 feet of snow in rapid fire blizzards. So much for running around the neighborhood. That was January. This is March. The more I was reading about 5 & 10K races and, I hate to admit it, the finisher medals, the more it bugged me that I'd stopped. So, a couple of weeks ago, the snowbanks retreated enough and I restarted. I was terrified that Week 2 would have me hitting a wall. About an hour ago, I finished W2D3. I have a regular Wednesday, Friday, Sunday schedule for these sessions now. I've done it in near-zero wind chills just flat-out determined to finish the session. I keep looking at next January when I want to run the Walt Disney World 5K & 10K - I already have my hotel reservations and we've turned it into a vacation. My wife wants to run the races as well. I have plenty of aches and pains from this. My back aches but I'm attributing that to all the extra weight I'm hoping to lose. I have one leg shorter than the other so one ankle keeps feeling like it's being stretched a bit - but I'm taking this slowly. However - these pains don't seem to last. Oh, sure, the first morning I woke up in horror but that was it. I can't express how hopeful I am that I may have FINALLY found a program that works for me (Ok, technology seems to have helped as well).