So this is how it works: Couch to 5k is a 9-week programme, with 3 runs per week. (You’re allowed/encouraged to repeat a week if it’s proving tough.) Each one starts with a 5-minute warmup walk, followed by a combination of walking/running intervals until the 5-minute cooldown at the end. Week 1 was 60 seconds of running, followed by 90 seconds of walking, repeated eight times; Week 2 is 90 seconds of running followed by 120 seconds of walking, repeated six times.

The grid below probably isn’t the smoothest way to explain this, but it does give a fairly good overview of how the running periods (coloured red) get longer over the programme, and the walking periods get shorter before disappearing entirely.

Week 5, Day 3 there is the dreaded one: 20 minutes of running, with no breaks. I’m told it is not actually impossible.

More pictures: here’s the elevation of my usual, hilly route, courtesy of the very useful WalkJogRun.net:

1: Warmup walk, quite steeply uphill. But that’s okay. Because it’s walking.
2: This bit of the run is vaguely uphill but not drastically so, quite a nice way to get started.
3: That slope there is vertical. VERTICAL. The hill isn’t quite vertical, but it’s pretty damn close. I hate that hill.
4: The steepish downhill section is trickier than it looks, but it’s easy compared to the hills.
5: Final hill. Damn the hill.
6: I’ve never actually noticed an uphill slope here, so either this one’s a hiccup or I’ve successfully stamped it flat by now.