The C25K program consists of three workouts per week for nine weeks. This is the results of the workout for week seven, day one.

Program: Brisk five-minute warmup walk.  25 minute run.  Five-minute cool-down walk.

Result: I completed the workout as planned, sort of. My heart rate averaged 149 bpm and peaked at 165 bpm. For the run segment, I did 1.79 miles in 25:11 for an average speed of 4.3 mph (14:03 minute/mile).

For this workout, I skipped the warm-up and cool-down walks and only did the run segment.  I wanted to find out if it made any difference.  It doesn’t seem to have had an effect.  The run segment performance was almost identical to W6D3.  I started at about the overall average pace and just kept going.  I wonder, though, whether this was overall a better run than on W6D3.  That run was done in the afternoon, after having had breakfast and lunch and caffeine with both.  This run was done first thing in the morning with only a little water and a piece of hard candy for fuel.  I am a little surprised the performance was the same.  Perhaps saving the warm-up energy for the run helped after all.

Just a caveat:  I would caution anyone else that skipping the warm-up walk may not work for them and could possibly result in injury.  It is possible that my style of running, an aggressive shuffle in minimalist footwear, may allow this more easily than more traditional techniques in regular running shoes.  Also, currently, my average running speed is not much faster than my walking speed.  This may further reduce my risk of injury compared with a faster runner.  If you want to try running without a warm-up walk, make sure to start slow so the early part of the run is the warm-up.

This workout and the prior provide a good, consistent baseline for me to work on improving over the next few weeks.  For future workouts, I will probably skip the warm-up and cool-down walks as I did with this workout.  I like how this one turned out.  Besides, my goal is to become a runner, not a walker.