5K Training For Beginners: From Couch To 5K Runner In 8 Weeks Or Less

I am a regular runner but picked up lots of good tips from this book. Great advice and motivation. I particularly liked Chapter 15: "Running the Race". It gives you a clear focus and helps you through each stage. You cannot be over prepared! Careful planning and training will leave you with a real sense of achievement after the race and you will never be a couch potato again. Good luck! Half Marathon Training (The Busy Girls Half Marathon Training Handbook - A Step By Step Guide To Running Your First Half Marathon)

Excellent !

looks like it will be useful in my quest to get fitter and healthier in 2014 have yet to read it all

For this to read to support a friend who had started running 5k, some useful tips on running styles. The rest was reporting stuff I already knew but was good to have it refreshed in my mind.

Love it!

I've got as far as what trainers to buy but haven't actually got off the couch yet.

far too much technical info

This book is very concise. I read it in one day. It is packed with important and interesting information for someone who wants to begin a running program. The author comes across as extremely knowledgeable and his advice is sensible. There were no crazy claims of lightning-fast weight loss or that an unfit person can do a 5K in 3 weeks using his program. I was disappointed in one thing about this book. I read all of part one, absorbed the information, very excited to start running. I even picked out some new running shoes. Then I got halfway through the second part, still impatient to start, when I read his advice that someone with my fitness level should actually train to WALK a 5K. I thought, what happened to the "couch" part of "couch to 5K"? I thought this was for sedentary people to learn to get out and run. He did have programs for couch to 5K or beginner to 5K, but I was unsure about trying that after reading about having to train to walk a 5K. Now, I do admire the author's honesty and willingness to tell me something I didn't necessarily want to hear, in the sense that he was trying to keep the program realistic. But it was still kind of a bummer. There's no mention of walking the 5K until you get to that part at the end of the book. I still think this book is great price for the solid information that you get from a fitness professional. It is definitely worth the read if you're interested in running a 5K and don't know where to start.

I just ran my first 5k this weekend. This book helped me with training but mostly with pep talks. There were two times I wanted to stop but I used the technics I learned in this book to push myself to keep going. I finished the 5k run in 36 mins and 21 seconds!

The benefits of regularly running are not unknown to anyone. As easy and simple as it might look, getting consistent with running is no cakewalk. It was finally after reading this beginner guide that I could identify my mistakes. The guide is full of tips on why we generally fail to get consistent and how to crack the art of running miles in one go. Every small detail has been discussed vividly and several myths have been debunked. If not for this book, I would never have been able to achieve the milestones I have now. Not only did this teach me how to run but also how to prepare myself for the same. Within a month I can feel the difference and how my stamina has leveled up. A must-read for all fitness enthusiasts.

I thought this book contained very good information and was also very motivational in getting anyone, young or old, off of our butts and onto the road. However, one of the final chapters of the book was the suggested training program and that is where the problem occurred. On the Kindle edition, the print is so small that it can barely be seen, much less followed. I enlarged the print size to the biggest setting and it cannot be seen. It's a shame because up to that point, the book was very informational but because of the print size resulting in a lack of a training schedule I feel I'm left high and dry and on my own. I can probably obtain a training schedule on line but I could have done that in the first place and saved my money.

I have been active with exercising just about six days a week for the past year or so now. At the beginning of this year, I set a goal to run a 5k. I had no idea where to start because I have NEVER run before. It just wasn't something I thought I could actually do. Enter this book. It is pretty concise and the author is clearly knowledgeable. The book takes you through the basic things you need to know...what to wear, what to eat, how to get the right shoes, stretching, additional exercises, etc. It also talks about how your body reacts to different types of exercises. The book was so helpful to me and I just completed my very first 5K and ran the whole thing! The book concludes with different training programs depending on what you are trying to accomplish. For example, do you just want to finish it? Do you want to increase your speed? I would recommend this book for people just starting out, but also for those who are looking to refresh or improve on the current running practice.