Hi Mark, just been reading your next to last post.......the first few weeks I went out I had really terrible pains in my legs at night, not every night, but I remember it keeping my awake for a while, think it's normal and it has stopped now....(few months later)...

Well done Mark!

Sounds to me like you're doing pretty well. I'd echo what's been said by the others, and add that it's generally accepted that you shouldn't increase your longest run by more than 10% per week.

Keith's parkrun idea is a really good one - I'm a huge fan of the parkrun concept. It'll get you used to 'racing', though you really don't need to worry about being a bit slow - there are plenty slower than you at parkruns, believe me. At the same time it will enable you to chart your progress over a set distance (5km or ~3.11 miles). It'll really help with your motivation, if you need it, you'll get to know a lot of nice people and best of all it's free!

Have a happy new year - and enjoy your running!

Hi Mark, I'm new to, started running in Sept 2010.....almost 10k in under an hour, how great.....I can manage 10k in 120, going to try and work on that this year.....I have the same thing as you though, I've run 10k three times now and haven't had to stop once, but sometimes I have to stop a couple of times in my 5k week night runs....have no idea why this is....I do have asthma and I think the cold air makes a difference because the week runs are at night and the 10k are during the day, but other than that I have no idea???

Hello Mark, welcome aboard!

Firstly, well done on your running so far. Keep it up!

In terms of your time, I'm going to have to play devil's advocate and say that only one person who can really tell you if a time is good or not, and that's you! It's quite a personal thing because a great time for one person would be a disaster for someone else, and vice versa. If you run the same route a few times more, I'm sure you'll find that you get faster and stronger, and that's the best way to measure success! In my personal view though, 53 mins for a bit under 10k (appx) is extremely respectable.

Out of interest, why did you suddenly increase the length of your run from 2.5m to 5.7m? That seems like a huge step up - over 100% in one go!

Hi Mark 5.7 miles in 53 minutes is excellent as a beginner, another half a mile which I'm sure you can do will bring you up to the magical 10k and you probably be just under the hour mark for that.

What I would say is that don't blast out each run especially at the start, do some gentle slow runs and save a fast one if you must once a week at most. The slow runs are not 'on the clock' so to speak, these can be gradually increased in terms of length as it's about building up endurance.

There are lots of techniques and ways to achieve your goal and if you look in the GRG articles and advice they will give you some ideas on how to go about it.