Hey comrades, hope the running is going well!
It's that sort of time that things are thawing out for our Northern Hemisphere comrades, and people who have been going stir-crazy stuck at home in the cold might be thinking of venturing out to start up some running, so I thought it might be a good time to give some love to our new/restarting runners this week!
It's in the sidebar, but the Couch to 5k program receives pretty universally good reviews from what I've heard, and is considered an excellent way of getting yourself up to a very respectable distance from scratch. It's a 9-week plan if you blast straight through it, but also pretty explicitly favours repeating any given week until you're comfortable if you're finding the week-on-week increases to be a bit much, which I think is excellent advice. There's also various apps and things that can help as well. Someone correct me if they have more or better info about it!
Anyone just starting up or getting through a couch to 5k or similar? How is it going? What are your thoughts on it all? Or have you gone for any alternative approaches to starting up running that have worked for you (or haven't worked)? Or just thinking about starting and wanting some advice/motivation?
I thought it might be good as well for people who have done a bit more running to also talk about things you wished you knew when you started...for me the absolute biggest thing was feeling like you're too old/ungainly/slow/unsporty/fat/dorky/whatever to start running and that everyone would be looking at you and judging you, and having that stop me from starting for way too long. In reality, I discovered that one of the silver linings of our alienated societies under late capitalism is that absolutely nobody gives a shit, and nobody is paying attention to you running at all, and if they do they will have forgotten you in half a second flat. And the actual running community, at least as I've experienced it, is a super supportive one that is very welcoming of people at every level
Anyway, as always also feel free to brag about running successes of the week or whatever other running related stuff you want to share!
Went for a run for the first time in months. Tried the run I did on days I couldn't give a shit. It was hard. Got pain shooting up my shins. Apparently cardio is use it or lose it
That sucks, sounds like shin splints more than cardio though, so don't be too disheartened!
Everyone has a different answer for shin splints, and none is a surefire solution, but going for shorter, faster steps (rather than big strides) and running on softer surfaces (grass or dirt is ideal, try and avoid concrete if possible) are definite helps. If your shoes are old and worn out, getting a new pair if possible will also be a big help in this regard.
Yeah, animals ate my running shoes, so I was running in the chucks Iift in, haha
Well There's Your Problem Episode 1312: Nagarjuna's shin splints
Seriously though, there's a whole school of "minimalist" people who advocate running in thin-soled flats but yeah even they would agree that it's something you have to ease into cautiously over months or you're likely to end up with problems. Rest in power to your running shoes, I hope they were delicious, but I reckon investing in a new pair would be very worthwhile if you want to get back into running