I’d like to start jogging/running to help lose a bit of flab. I’m planning to do it on some local trails to keep it interesting, as I bore too easily on paths/roads.

Anyhoo – I can’t run for toffee, and never have been. When I’ve previously tried to do regular running, I’ve obviously done it all wrong the first or second day out and ended up with legs that are too sore to run again for at least another 5 days. Generally, it’s muscular pain down the sides of the front of my shin.

So, any tips for how to sensibly start running without doing more harm than good?

K

When I’ve previously tried to do regular running, I’ve obviously done it all wrong the first or second day out and ended up with legs that are too sore to run again for at least another 5 days

I would say that is more your body telling you it has just had to do something for the first time it was not expecting and needs a bit of time to recover. Next time you do it this effect will decrease.

Anyways. Do not too much too soon and don’t be afraid to walk some of the route. Mix it up with Walk/Jog/Run to start with. If you start to hurt then stop.

Repeat.

Edit: Oh and barefoot! …before anyone else says it 😉

I have similar problems – I’m aerobically quite fit so can run quite hard for quite a long time.

Unfortunately my ‘running’ muscles are virtually atrophied so I can’t walk for a week after trying to run.

It might feel a bit difficult to achieve but I’d suggest doing the 50/50 walk/run thing for the first few times and only going out for 30 mins or so.

Once your body adjusts a bit and the aches and pains don’t come then up the walk:run ratio…

So, any tips for how to sensibly start running without doing more harm than good?

Put your left leg forward, then your right, repeat at slightly faster than walking speed. HTH

Put your left leg forward, then your right, repeat at slightly faster than walking speed. HTH

🙁

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/c25k/Pages/couch-to-5k.aspx

I’m doing this, on week 3 now. The podcasts are good, telling you when to run or walk, slowly building up.

start of short and with 3-4 days rest. you will get better quickly.

Yup, the couch to 5k is good
http://www.c25k.com/

just deal with it really is about all you can do… i’m much the same these days, can’t run for toffee and contemplating starting up running to mixing it up from cycling it a bit, and i know when i do start it’ll hurt like hell, but i’ve been through this before…it goes away after 3 or 4 runs(games of fives) can be less depends how unfit/unused to running you are, start of with a week break and then gradually reduce that, you soon find it doesn’t hurt any more.

i don’t run so much these days but when i did i too suffered from sore legs the next day. the way to stop it, or at least this worked without fail for me, was to walk for at least 5 minutes after stopping running. it made a huge difference.

..oh and its anecdotal, but jump in an ice cold bath as soon as you are done and stay in it for 5 mins.

Spray down the hurty bits with a cold shower, as cold as you can bear for as long as you can stand. Really makes a difference to recovery.
Don’t run for an hour once every 3 weeks and expect your legs not to complain – if you run consistently, maybe every other day if possible, for shorter times I find I don’t need to do the run /walk thing which whilst it is effective gets on my nerves too much to keep up.
Consistency is definitely the key to going longer, faster and hurting less – same as cycling really.

start slow – about the same as fast walking pace, don’t run far – 10minutes max, increase speed and distance SLOWLY.

Stretch a bit.

don’t worry about the ice-baths…

Switching from cycling muscles to running will take a while to get used to. Start with a very easy and slow jog walk – maybe 2mins jogging to 1 min walking. It won’t feel like much of a cv workout to begin with, but better to build up slowly than get injured or have too sore to move legs for days. Stretch lots and then some more. Make sure you have decent, well fitted shoes. Massage balm with arnica is great. Ice baths have never done much for me, other than make me cold and swear lots – if you start out jog walking you shouldn’t need to have an ice bath.

I’m not one to offer advice on starting easy though, my first run was a hilly 10km in 50mins. I thought i was going to die but there was no way i was getting dropped by my running friend. I hurt for days after it! 😆

The original post says that the soreness is around the sides and front of the shins but doesnt say if its during running or just after running.

Could be shin splints. If so could be trainers too tight, or calves not streteched enough.

I started after xmas. Signed up for a 10k in March. I’d advise getting a decent sports shop to measure your gait etc, makes a difference having a shoe that suits. I could barely manage a mile when I kicked off, 3x a week. Half walk-half run is honestly the best start. I’m up to just over 4 miles now. Pace is slow, but I’m carting around a couple of stone that I shouldnt be, so I’m taking it steady. I go a lot harder on the bike, but there’s no impact. Stretching afterwards is a big thing. At least 5 mins of good stretching. Weight is coming off, but I’m determined not to be watching the scales all the time. If I feel better that will do for me. Last nights run…

CLICK

start slow – about the same as fast walking pace, don’t run far – 10minutes max, increase speed and distance SLOWLY.

100% agree

absolutely no more than 10 minutes.

walk half a minute, run half a minute, and repeat, 10 mins for starters, 3 x week. then 15, then 20. then walk/run a minute at a time and so on. don’t run slowly, just walk slowly.

My gf wanted to get fitter so wanted to run so i said i’d help her.
she couldnt run for more than a few mins at first before having to stop.
So all we did was run and walk for about 20 mins 3x a week at a level she was comfortable with (i dont think you can set a timelimit as everyone is different) we then worked up to 30 mins run walk for a couple weeks. Then as if by magic we were runing 30 mins with only a couple of stops.
I then reduce the rest time of stops to below 1 min, 45, 30, 15 seconds and a few weeks later she could run 30 mins!
We are now over 5k and she can do that in 30 mins! she wants to do 10k now… WHAT HAVE I DONE
in the mean time i’ve been riding once a week lol

The aches and pains are your body’s way of telling you you’ve done some exercise and that it’s recovering. Say it takes five days for the pain to go after the first run, do another run on the fifth day, and you’ll probably find it only takes three or four days for the pain to go. Run again on the first pain-free day, and so on, and after a few weeks you’ll soon find that you could run every day if you wanted to without aches and pains.

as people have said – start off slowly with a alk to warm up – running/jogging slowly to warm up is really bad as there is a lot of shock. Read “The Stark Reality of Stretching” for more info.

Wow guys (and gals). Thanks for all those replies. Some really good advice in there. Very much appreciated!

i’d be careful. I’ve taken upa bit of running recently and my knees hurt. Legs kinds feel stretched after yrs of cycling.

You’re posting on a bike site so you’ve probably got a bike. You can burn 600 cals per hour on your bike and I bet you can bike for longer than you can run. So if you want to burn cals to help with weightloss then just bike more.

Or you could just eat less

In a not dissimilar situation (running to lose weight I mean).

I was directed to this site:

http://www.serpentine.org.uk/pages/beginners_tentips.html

You might find something of use on it somewhere.

Not sure if anyone else mentioned it already, but proper trainers made a big difference for me. Bought in a proper running shop, took a few hours of running on a treadmill with a video camera pointing at my feet trying lots of different shoes and insole combos but well worth it.

Generally, it’s muscular pain down the sides of the front of my shin.

Walk to start off with. After a month you should be able to run without shin pain. I wouldn’t try to train through it, stuff starts to tear.

It’s what you eat that controls how you lose weight, doing more running/cycling wont make virtually any difference unless you make changes to what your eating.

I would recommend The Paleo Diet for Athletes which gives some excellent advice on what you can do to meet this gain without compromising performance. It can be a bit serious in places but the general rules are right.

I also started doing a bit of running just before Christmas and my first run was very short, I’m just doing it to help build those muscles not used in cycling and just jog around and for the first few weeks longest run was 20 minutes then slowly built up by adding 5 minutes on to my longest run a week. After the first 2 weeks where I only did 2 a week of 10-15 minutes it got a lot easier to do.

I’m not one to offer advice on starting easy though, my first run was a hilly 10km in 50mins.

It’s quite scary how good some people are at running without even training for it! Mind you I suppose I’m naturally good at… …nope, can’t think of anything. I did a flat 10k in 47 minutes after training with my wife for a half-marathon for a few months. My legs are much happier pedalling circles, but even with that they prefer interval stuff, not constant effort.

Definitely start slowly with the running so your muscles and joints don’t suffer – most people are naturally held back by their cardio ability but that won’t be the case if you’re an even vaguely keen cyclist.

+1 for the ice cold bath …it does work

I ‘enjoyed’ an ice (technically cold water plus a couple of bags of snow) bath in the chalet after each day’s skiing last time I went. I swear it’s the only thing that allowed my legs to last the duration!

you do enough excercise now you need to eat less. There is no mystery to the energy used v calories consumed equation. How you achieve that is up to you

Good luck

Not sure it is as simple as people make out above – your heart rate needs to be in the fat-burning zone which is actually quite low – I am a lazy jogger and my heart rate is low enough that weight drops off, whereas when I cycle my heart rate is probably higher and I do not lose weight at anywhere near the same rate.

As per many of the other post above – you’re starting from a pretty low base so I’m afraid it’s going to be uncomfortable.

You can avoid being sore by running slow.

If you get really sore stop for a while.

Don’t give up.

In a couple of years you might be a reasonable runner.

Could be shin splints.

After one run?

could happen.

the muscle that runs down the outside/front of your shin is the muscle that lifts your foot.

running with a heel-strike loads this muscle with a shock-load with every foot-fall.

this can cause it to hurt a bit.

i find a shin-specific warm-up helps this muscle. do some toe extensions/raises, that sort of thing.

if you’re new to this running lark, don’t worry about trying to run for days on end, 15 to 25 minutes a couple of times a week should be enough for now. your body will tell you when it’s ready to go further/faster.

you’ll be half-way round your local 4k loop, and at the point where you always turn left to head home, your legs WILL just say ‘nope, sorry, we’re going this way’ and they’ll turn right, and take the long way home.

Hop, then for the next few days hop on the other foot. Repeat.

I’ve been doing more running and get a pain like you in the sides of my shins. I find it comes on after running and the first 2 miles of a run are normally the most sore.

The things that’ve made the biggest difference for me have been proper strteching both before and after, new trainers from a properly knowledgeable shop and compression socks that come up to the knee (I use the 1000 mile ones). I still get a bit of pain but its much reduced and will be off for a sports massage on Monday to see how much of difference that makes.

I don’t think that I recommend wearing compression socks just to mask the pain etc but they certainly seem to reduce the pain and make recovery a bit quicker for me. I did this on the advice of the physio/running bloke in the shop.