Once the home sessions feel easy, it's time to take your new legs for a walk. Then, if you fancy it, a jog.
The short version
- Walks first, then brisk walks, then walk-jog.
- Fartlek means "speed play": brisk to one lamppost, easy to the next.
- The NHS Couch to 5K is a brilliant free plan when you're ready to run.
Walk first
You've been walking since chapter 5. Now make some of those walks count. Brisk pace, about 3 miles an hour, where you can talk but not sing.1 Twenty minutes, then thirty. Add hills when you're ready. Britain isn't short of them.
Fartlek: speed play
Fartlek is a Swedish word that means "speed play". Yes, it sounds like something you'd apologise for in a lift. It's a simple way to mix faster and easier bits without needing a stopwatch.
Walk briskly to the next lamppost. Walk easy to the one after. Repeat for ten minutes. When that feels easy, swap the brisk bit for a gentle jog. Start tiny. One lamppost of jogging is a win. No lampposts where you live? Use trees, gates, or suspicious sheep.
Walk-jog
When jogging between lampposts feels fine, try timed walk-jog: one minute of jogging, ninety seconds of walking, repeated. That's how week one of the NHS Couch to 5K plan starts. It runs for nine weeks, three runs a week, building up to 30 minutes of running.2 It's free, it's well designed, and there's a voice in your ear telling you you're doing great. Which you are.
Outside, safely
A quick reminder from chapter 4: be seen, tell someone your route, take your phone, and if there's no pavement, walk facing the traffic.3
Your rep for this chapter
Go for a brisk walk with three lamppost speed-ups in it. That's your first fartlek. Try not to say it out loud.
All 18 chapters of Basic Training
Sources
1. NHS. Walking for health.
2. NHS. Couch to 5K running plan.
3. GOV.UK. The Highway Code: rules for pedestrians (rules 1 to 35).