Why can't I run?

I’ve tried running on three different occasions. Following the couch to 5k. On each occasion I’ve got several weeks into it then got an injury which has stopped me in my tracks. First in the calf then in two places in my thigh. I followed all the instructions. Warmed up. Stretched. Etc etc. Wore the correct shoes.

Now I’d like to have another go but I’m worried that it’ll just end up the same way. I’m pretty heavy at 18st, though I’m sure that’s not the cause of the injuries as I see plenty of runners who are heavier than me.

What’s going wrong? Am I just more injury prone? After a lifetime riding bikes are my leg muscles just not suited to running?

Start slow, do run walk, run walk. Until the running is more than the walking, if you do feel a twinge though, stop straight away and walk home. Then RICE.

I was about 14.5 stone when I started running & can honestly say I get far fewer injuries now I’m about 12.5. For me it took a long time to build the strength to cope with the impacts of running, having basically not done it for about 15years. I would say build it up very slow and steady but try to run consistently over time.

I’d find some other way to get fit. Running is terrible for the joints in the legs. Especially if you’re heavy. I used to run a lot, then after injury, the first run I did caused patella tendonisis. Just one of the many ways running can ruin your life!!

I have always been rubbish at running any distance, even playing reasonably high level sports when Inwas younger I was always the slowest at anything over 800m and had terrible ensurance. If I ever try and run any sort of distance I pick up various injuries (usually calf aggravating tears drom when I was younger). For me its just not worth it. I love to walk/hike and ride my bike, that will do. Perhaps you are the same.

I used to be that way. Then I discovered that I was doing it wrong. People ridicule me on here for this, but the way I was running was making it far harder for me. Briefly, I was hitting the ground with my heel out in front of my hips, which meant not only was I braking myself with each stride, but the shock was going through my straight leg into my body.

I found it vastly easier to have my foot strike the ground under my body, and with the front part of my foot first. I try to have my calf and foot absorb the shock. This controversial because there is also a fad for ‘barefoot style’ running which receives a lot of opprobrium from cynics. That may be deserved, however it is possible to be running wrongly and making it much harder for yourself.

I’m still rubbish but at least I can do it now.

Can you be more specific about “calf injury” and “thigh injury”? Per molgrips I would expect joints to be more prone to damage, but it doesn’t sound like that was the issue?

18st is a lot of potential impact/strain – as a non-runner I’d say that you should use a shorter stride than you are currently

Any tips for easing achilles pain? I’m pretty much a novice runner and initially my back was killing me – now it’s just sore achilles I get.

I used to be jinxed when it came to running, then a YT video that talked about ‘My painful bits’ showed how to do some in depth stretching and trainer advice. Apparently not all neutral trainers are the same!

I stretch my bits three times a day and do weighted squats (i could kill people with my thighs). Some folks can stretch just before a run and be fine, but i need to do it more often and more in depth stretching or i am in a world of hobbling pain.

Remember it’s not just about your calf’s as the muscles and tendons are all inter connected to each other so your problem could be further up your body

Molgrips is right – as a runner myself I modified my stride a lot to keep foot strike under me more – I’m tall at 6’3 and had a tendency to go for big strides, and heel striking. Much better and faster now I land mid foot. It takes some work, but worth it to reduce injury

Is your bike broken?

I got to week 8 on the 9 week Couch to 5k programme and stuffed my Achilles. it’s been 2-3 months and I’m only now thinking of going back and starting another go.

Others have given better advice than I could about stride length and the mechanics of running. From other people I know who have done C25K, your weight itself shouldn’t be a barrier, so the injury issue may be mechanical.

But if you are injured, can you still walk briskly for those 30 minutes 3 times a week? Could you go and ride your bike for that time instead? Is there a council gym where you might get a cheap deal so you can do some other form of exercise – seem to recall you aren’t working as you look after the kids so might qualify that way, or a GP referral? Running may not be a viable option at the moment, but you have obviously realised that you want to lose some weight and get fitter, so look at other options.

I’m in no position to say the next bit being weak willed and on medication that makes you prone to weight gain, but have you looked at what you can do to improve the diet aspect to help counteract the problems with the exercise aspect?

I found it vastly easier to have my foot strike the ground under my body, and with the front part of my foot first. I try to have my calf and foot absorb the shock. This controversial because there is also a fad for ‘barefoot style’ running which receives a lot of opprobrium from cynics. That may be deserved, however it is possible to be running wrongly and making it much harder for yourself.

I found this very interesting. Thanks molgrips, I’ll certainly give this a try.

My diet is shite and always has been/will be. I’m.hopinv the running will counteract it somewhat. Though I’m the same weight I’ve been for the last 15 years so it doesn’t seem to be getting any worse.

I think the advice above is pretty sound. Shorter strides, higher cadence, and build up very slowly. 18 stone is very heavy, ideally you’d probably try and drop at least 3 or 4 stone, but in the meantime you need to build up very slowly, lots of walking, and run/walk intervals to build up strength.

Have to say 18st is pretty hefty for taking up running, it’s not impossible to turn into the next Jonah Lomu but it’s probably a good idea to take things very gently and build up slowly, especially if you’re not in the first flush of youth. +1 to the above advice about stride length, I think that was the key for me becoming a moderately efficient runner.

The problem I think I have with running is that cycling has made me aerobically quite fit. But my joints / muscles aren’t adapted for running. So I can run further / faster than a beginner runner might, and I don’t give my muscles and joints enough chance to build up slowly.

Just a theory. Either way I’m not surprised your joints don’t enjoy 18st piling through them every stride.

I’m about 18st and I would like to get into running, but it’s not something I think is particularly sensible at the momemt, just due to impact strain. I’m going by the thought process that I need to learn to walk before I run, hence I’m building up my walking distances at the moment, and once I’ve lost some weight, 16st seems a good target, can walk 20 miles up and down mountains, on consecutive days. Then I think that will give me the requried leg/body strength to pick up running.

Personally I’d really like to get back into fitba again, but I’m not doing that till I can run a good few miles with confidence of not getting injury due to lack of fitness (that happened to my last time I played a few games.)

+1 superficial, cycling is great, but it does nothing to prepare you for the impact strain of running, or the twisting and turning required to play fitba.

What about building up the fitness on a running machine? The bounce in them is far more forgiving than hard ground.

I’m the same weight I’ve been for the last 15 years so it doesn’t seem to be getting any worse.

Be a bit careful with this which whilst its better than heavier you’ll almost certainly have been losing muscle and gaining fat.

Cycling is a great low impact excersize, give that a go too 😉

Some great advice above. Another thing to consider is where to run. Running off road might be a bit uneven underfoot, but picking a park and running on grass can be a lot easier on your joints than the shock of running on Tarmac. The other thing is to just take it really steady, trying to go too fast too soon can cause problems too.

I always used to concentrate on landing on the heel and rolling along the foot just to minimize impact shock!

But as I get fitter and run a bit faster I don’t actually land on my heel anyway.

Make sure you walk to warm up, not run slowly as that will actually cause more shock and therefore injuries. Better to run a faster pace over a shorter distance than a slow pace for further and do junk miles.

Try some compression tights, like 2XU. They actually feel a liitle like cheating.

Have you got a decent sports physio nearby? A few years back I started upping my distances and my knees gave me shit. A friend recommended a physio who pretty much instantly spotted a muscle imbalance and gave me some exercises to do. One £40 session, problem solved.

Not something I would ever have thought of before, but would recommend to anyone getting pain when running.

This might sound odd but why not ease off in the 0-5km plan before you get to the injury point?

Take your time getting to 5km?

How about you hop in with this lot and see if your motivation gets you up to speed 😉

Have you got a decent sports physio nearby? A few years back I started upping my distances and my knees gave me shit. A friend recommended a physio who pretty much instantly spotted a muscle imbalance and gave me some exercises to do. One £40 session, problem solved.

But seriously this +1
Something is causing you problems, solve the problem not the symptom

I’ve given running a go a few times as an exercise and every time I have done it I have been left thinking that was rubbish.

I’m 17st just now, had a go the other day, and even at 37 years old, I still cannot for the life of me work out how to pace myself, reduce my stride without feeling really uncomfortable or simply enjoy it.

I planned to give it another go after getting back in this evening, try and build in a short 3 or 4k jog around the estate, but I imagine it is more likely that by the time I get home, I would rather think about running than actually doing it.

3 or 4k is a long way to begin with. When I tried to get back to running the solution was walk 100m jog 100m and increase that slowly. It made a huge difference as cycling regularly I had no heart/lung issues with going for ages but I could easily push my legs too far without noticing it until too late

And audio books helped with the tedium

For pacing and stride find a cheap running watch. Im never going to be fast but increasing cadence helped dramatically, probably for the reasons that molgrips gave above. Wouldn’t have spotted that without the watch

A couple of years I was able to ‘run’ 5km in about 35 minutes (5 min run/1 min walk).

For my first (and only) Park Run, trying to run no-stop, I got round in just under 30 minutes, aggravated my achilles, and gave up running again!

I’m currently doing couch to 5km with a group (we’ve done week 6 day 3 – a 25 minute run) and finding the longer continuous runs a lot tougher on my legs.

Why not ditch couch to 5km and just try run-walk intervals?

http://www.jeffgalloway.com/training/run-walk/%5B/url%5D

Is it worth it? Said on the tellybox the other day people trying to lose weight lost more doing lower intensity exercise for longer. For no reason other than they kept doing it.

Have never enjoyed a run like I enjoy cycling. Has anyone found that they didn’t at first but at some point they preferred it to cycling?

I used to hate running with a passion, I still enjoy cycling but on a cold drizzly day I’d probably rather do a run than a cycle these days. Running in poor weather is nowhere near as cold and miserable as cycling can be, especially for hands and feet, and it’s over quicker (cos generally speaking running is more intense than cycling, I do it for less time).

Took a few years of gradually building up the running to get to this point though.

Running’s a lot less faff than cycling too – easy to just chuck your shoes on and run from the door. I really enjoy it, sometimes more than cycling, sometimes not. It’s good cross training for the cycling too – more fitness bang for time buck.

It took me a while to get up to speed running, for the same reasons as above – being a cyclist for years, my aerobic fitness was much better than the running strength in my legs, so it was easy to overdo it.

Loddrck, I can actually get to call you a light weight. I started running at 23 1/2 stones, first on the couch to 5k then onto 10k’s and this year I’m doing the Great North Run. Molgrips advice is good but as a heavy runner you will create massive stress on your Archilles heel casing damage which takes longer to heal than your muscles. Try a gait you feel comfortable with and forget any ideas of speed, just concentrate on a steady pace over a longer distance. As the weight drops speed will come and you’ll then be able to increase the cadence and run more on the front of your feet.
Your training plan may suggest interval training on hills, this will have you running shorter steps with your feet under you as described by Molgrips but your heels will be lower too due to the incline whch creates even more stress on your Archilles so avoid the hills, which carrying extra weight probably isn’t that much fun anyway.
Finally use a foam roller between runs you’ll be putting in twice the effort to achieve half what the average runner does so you need all the help you can to recovery afterwards. Concentrate on your calfs, shins and IBS band

Get to a proper running shop, have your gait analysed on their machine, then get the shoes with the correct level of stability and cushioning for your gait.

Ah sorry – just read that you wear the “correct shoes” so it looks like you have done the above.

Doesn’t make them the right shoes.i still get pains and injury’s when I ear the specialist running shop prescribed brooks trainers – after the treadmill gait analysis pish.

I thought it was just me being unable to run

Threw them in the back of the cupboard (id done 60k in them so they were neither not broken in enough or worn out)

Got a pair of minimalist shoes
and started again c25k and now run most lunch times at 5.5min/k for 5k plus which I know isn’t fast or far but it’s further and faster than I’ve been able to run for about 10 years. I did try the brooks again to see if I’d just adapted but no. Still got sore knees and shins

So don’t assume the shop always gets your shoes right.

Fwiw I dont advocate minimalist approach at your weight mind.

Running is terrible for the joints in the legs.

Old wives tale. Whether you get worn out joints is due entirely to genetics and more traumatic injuries (skiing, for example)

Old wives tale. Whether you get worn out joints is due entirely to genetics and more traumatic injuries (skiing, for example)

I’ve never thought of skiing as an injury…. 😉

I’m about 5 weeks in on c25k, and getting a bit nervous after reading the stuff above!

I’m not doing for weight loss, just because I really enjoyed running about 20 years ago and fancy doing it again – I stopped due to odd tendon problems that I never got diagnosed properly.

The c25k progression seems really good so far, but seems to be ramping up now. I think it’s necessary to be very careful with pace. I’m deliberately holding back on effort to complete the running in terms of time periods. It’s something I’ll look into when (if!) I get to the final week, whether to try and increase pace over 5k or distance.

Before I started I did a few weeks of stretching classes, which have really eased off my tight hamstrings. Might be worth considering especially if you’ve got typical cyclists flexibility.

The other thing that c25k doesn’t address, but that people above have discussed is technique.I’m trying to run with shorter strides to limit impact through the heel, but I feel that I should really get some proper advice.

As a fellow large runner I’d agree with a lot of the advice on here.

Personally I find running off road to be much better, mainly I think because you have to alter your stride pattern to suit the terrain and watch were your foot lands.

I like a lot of people was intrigued by barefoot running and its claims but having read a few things that discussed this and foot strike etc, it concluded that trying to alter foot strike often moved the injury to a different location. The one thing that it did say was most injuries seem to be from over striding and having tried to shorten my stride I have to say I get less knee pain and calf tightness. although I have to say mine were at the lower end of the pain threshold!

Basically find a natural strike for yourself with a shorter stride, run off road at least an equal amount to road, find a pair of comfy shoes, run, enjoy, listen to your body. Not scientific but your are running for fun and health there will be a way, try to find your way, not the way that someone has decided it most effective.