When I coach 0-to-5K courses, my favourite week isn’t the last session when runners complete 30 minutes running, or even the graduation parkrun that we run together. My favourite session comes in week eight when they run for 20 minutes.
In my beginners’ programme, week eight is the first week that we don’t have a set walk break and the runners go from completing two lots of 10 minutes in week seven to a 20-minute stretch the following week. Most of my runners are nervous about this step up, and some doubt that they’re ready to take the leap.
While all of us who have been running for a while know that walk breaks are a regular part of running – I’ll often stop on a run whether it’s to cross a road, take a photo or just because I feel like it – beginners sometimes feel that they’re not a ‘real runner’ until they can run for a set period of time without stopping.
When I blow my whistle at the end of 20 minutes, the elation from the runners that they’ve actually done it is something that I will never get bored of. They congratulate each other and go home on a high. It’s the week when they start to see running 5K as possible and see themselves as runners.
That 20-minute point remains significant as we get more expe
