NHS Couch to 5K NHS Choices
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- Health & Fitness
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This is a running plan designed to get complete beginners from couch potato to running 5k (or 30 minutes) in nine weeks.
It is:
- Achievable - starting with a mix of running and walking and building up slowly
- Virtually free - all you need is a decent pair of trainers and an MP3 player (a regular mobile phone will do)
- Easy - a motivating 'personal trainer' tells you exactly when to stop and start.
The plan sets three runs per week with a day of rest between each run.
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Couch to 5K - Week 1
Couch to 5k is a running plan designed to get complete beginners from being a couch potato to running 5k (or 30 minutes) in nine weeks. It is: - Achievable - starting with a mix of running and walking and building up slowly - Virtually free - all you need
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Couch to 5K - Week 2
Couch to 5k is a running plan designed to get complete beginners from being a couch potato to running 5k (or 30 minutes) in nine weeks. It is: - Achievable - starting with a mix of running and walking and building up slowly - Virtually free - all you need
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Couch to 5K - Week 3
Couch to 5k is a running plan designed to get complete beginners from being a couch potato to running 5k (or 30 minutes) in nine weeks. It is: - Achievable - starting with a mix of running and walking and building up slowly - Virtually free - all you need
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Couch to 5K - Week 4
Couch to 5k is a running plan designed to get complete beginners from being a couch potato to running 5k (or 30 minutes) in nine weeks. It is: - Achievable - starting with a mix of running and walking and building up slowly - Virtually free - all you need
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Couch to 5K - Week 5 run 1
Couch to 5k is a running plan designed to get complete beginners from being a couch potato to running 5k (or 30 minutes) in nine weeks. It is: - Achievable - starting with a mix of running and walking and building up slowly - Virtually free - all you need
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Couch to 5K - Week 5 run 2
Couch to 5k is a running plan designed to get complete beginners from being a couch potato to running 5k (or 30 minutes) in nine weeks. It is: - Achievable - starting with a mix of running and walking and building up slowly - Virtually free - all you need
Customer Reviews
Taught me to run at 46
Finally learned to love running at 46 with this app after a lifetime believing that my body wasn’t suited to running. Only downside is the music in early weeks is great, then unfortunately gets repetitive from week 5 onwards. This becomes an issue when runners need to repeat runs more than twice before being ready to progress to next run, and end up unable to bear the song repetitions week after week. Be amazing if the app could be updated with no song repetitions at all.
Road to recovery
After several years of varying degrees of immobility due to a spinal injury, I’m now 3-4 months post op and have started to feel well enough to start low impact jogging. This app has helped me immensely.
Fantastic app
Just about to start week 4 and really enjoying it. I look forward to the next run!!!! Can’t believe I’m saying this! I was the couch potato. But I have read that you can change the voice of the trainer but can’t see how to do it.