Interval questions.

I am now running (lol, okay jogging) 45 minutes at a time. I'm still pretty slow though so I thought I'd start working on some speed. My idea was to do the first week of the C25K program and use it for intervals rather than a walk/jog. I want to turn it into a walk/RUN. So my question is: how often a week should I work on the intervals? On bestrunningtips.com they suggest only doing it once I can jog an hour at a time. Should I wait? or go ahead and start doing it once a week?

Thanks!

I think it's what your body will allow you to do.
I am doing the c25k program as a jog/run now myself.
My first time through it it was walk 3mph jog 5mph
Now I'm doing it as jog 6mph run 7mph.

It has really helped.  It is harder, but I'm enjoying seeing the progress.
I think they set the intervals in such a way that you are successful in the beginning.  There is a lot of recover time for those first few weeks, and not a lot of the up tempo running.
I would recommend starting it from the beginning and easing yourself into the plan at the new speeds you want to attempt.

Scott

Thanks Scott! Did you do the intervals once a week or do it three times a week on the C25K program? I don't want to kill myself starting out and I still want to do my regular runs as well. Is it better to get in one interval a week on top of my normal run or just move to the 3 intervals a week and not do my normal run?

I started the whole program over, just increased my speeds.

It's not like I am doing sprint intervals or anything like that.  I just increase my walk to a jog and my jog to more of a run.  The c25k program is all intervals 3 times a week.   Now if you were doing all out sprints, I think I would be inclined to do it once a week.

I'm kind of screwed up on my runs because of my resolution to average 3 miles a day.

but basically I have 3 runs that I'm supposed to be doing during the week.  At least this is what they look like now,  they will probably change during the week.  On top of these I have short 20 minute runs after most of my bike rides.  And on my off days, I have to get in at least 3 miles for my resolution.  Those resolution runs are the ones where I have been doing the c25k program

I have a standard run that is usually around 4 miles and the goal from my coach is to try and run that a little faster each time.  I run the same course every time, just  trying to shave off some seconds.

Then I usually have a run of an hour or so where I am doing some kind of speed changes during the run

Then there is the long run which is 80+ minutes currently but will be getting longer

I did my first day of intervals doing all out sprints. I think I'll tone it down a little until i'm a little better runner. I'll try just doing the increased speeds Thanks for the tips!!

The conventional wisdom about intervals for beginners is not more than once a week.

Thanks Scott.

I think your weekly running routine should include 1 day of speed work or intervals, one day of hill work, and one long run to build base....

I do sundays as my long days (includes rolling hills) and just started to do the speed work, My next goal is doing more hilly runs.

ETA: What is a good base to have?