Fitness health centre

If you've taken on the challenge of the Couch to 5K plan and completed it, well done!

You must be feeling a great sense of achievement, not to mention fitter and healthier.

The key now, is to keep building on your success. Robin Gargrave of Central YMCA, the activity for health charity, stresses the importance of working hard to keep going. "Successful behaviour change usually takes 12 weeks, so you have to make yourself keep going," he says.

One way of staying motivated beyond the Couch to 5K plan, is to find a new focus. "You have to reset your goal," says Robin. "Set a new goal that's realistic and think about a plan for achieving that.

"So if your goal is a 10K run, that's quite a big step up and it'll take longer than another nine weeks. Be realistic about the time frame."

Improving your running

If you're happy to stick with your 30-minute runs, Robin has some great tips to keep you motivated.

Improving your pace

A good technique is to consciously increase the length of your stride. You will feel more out of breath and if that becomes uncomfortable you can drop back down to your normal number of steps. When you recover, increase your stride and speed up again. You'll find that over time you'll find the gaps between having to drop down to your normal pace will gradually decrease. It's a simple technique and you'll get there surprisingly quickly.

Be sociable

You could join a group or a club, which provides you with an extra bit of stimulation and motivation - even if it's just a Saturday morning 5K run. Parkrun is a good example. This is a series of 5K runs held in parks throughout the country. These are community-based events run by volunteers and they happen every Saturday at 9am and are free to enter. Your run is timed so you can track your progression, but it's not competitive and provides you with a great way of being sociable and making new friends in your area.

Treat yourself

You could treat yourself to some new gear - a nice vest or a pair of shorts. If you're keen to upgrade your trainers, you could go to a specialist running store where they video you on a treadmill in order to measure your stride length, your gait and your heel strike.

A change of scenery

You could try a different environment - so if you've been running in the streets, look at green space, parks etc. You also try varying the terrain. Look for some hills in your local area and give yourself a bit of a challenge.

Building activity into your day

Modern life can make us lazy - from cars to escalators, office jobs and too much TV, it's too easy for us to live sedentary lives. The key to reversing this trend is to retrain yourself to seek out opportunities to be more active.

Robin has a simple tip to build activity into every day. "I recently got myself a pedometer, which measures the number of steps I walk. I found that incredibly motivating to do more activity. I'll find opportunities to get more steps in. You need to look for opportunities to be more physically active. So don't stand on the escalator - walk up it - and try not to take the car everywhere. If you have to use it, park as far from where you need to be as possible."

For more ideas, watch this video on how to build the recommended 10,000 steps into your day.

Trying new sports

Now you've tackled running, why not think about other sports you could try? You don't have the excuse of being unfit anymore and you've proved to yourself you can train your body to do something different.

And as Robin points out, there are all kinds of fitness. "Running is very good for the muscular endurance of your legs and your cardiovascular fitness, but you could try, for instance, some resistance training for your upper body strength.

"You could join a gym or get some equipment for use at home - so that you begin to develop a much more all-round type of fitness."

For more fun ideas on getting active and staying motivated, check out our Exercise and fitness section.