I've been doing the Couch to 5K program for a while now, and I'm currently at the last week of it. I can run for 30 minutes now, but at a much, much slower pace than the average novice runner at my age and sex (as I've seen when I looked it up, at least).
So what now? The program says that I should be able to run 5k now, but I can't run it in 30 minutes, not even 40 at this pace. How do I increase my speed?
Thank you so much for the responses in advance.
EDIT: I feel like I might've been misunderstood. I can now run for 30 minutes straight, but way less than 5K in that time. The issue is that if I were to run 5K, I would be able to run it a lot slower than 40, let alone 30 minutes, at my current pace.
Yeah to be honest I don't think anybody finishes the program with a 30 minute 5K if they genuinely started from a sedentary lifestyle. I was confused by this as well! I think the point is that by the end of the set program, you are ready to run a 5K.
Candidly, a 30 minute 5K is still a big effort for me and I rarely run at that pace. And people think of me as an extremely fit person. I'm just really, really not built for speed.