Lost it overnight!

[anthony_jeannot]

After slow and steady progress my last two runs have been horrendous.

Friday I felt a strange tightness in my hamstring at the 18 minute mark and called it quits to play it safe. Today, I made a conscious effort to run 30 seconds per km slower and everything felt wrong. The padding of my feet felt bruised and towards the end of the run I felt what I hope is not but felt ominously like shin splints.

My question is, has anyone else had the experience of or is their any logic to the thought that maybe by trying to run slower I was running more heavy footed? Hence the impact pain?

What is the best way to tackle this slump?

For context I graduated c25k about 6 weeks ago and have focused on maintaining a slow pace and slowly and steadily adding extra time to my runs. Since the consolidation runs (where I added no time) I've added about 6 minutes per run (roughly two minutes added to each run every week). I've deliberately kept things slow up until Friday, the recovery from a run was feeling better and better.

Not sure how to take or what to do with this new found speed bump.

[nowster Graduate10]

The first thing that springs to mind is, are you getting enough rest between runs?

[UpTheStanley Graduate10]

That sounds like you’re adding too much distance too quickly. Juju’s magic plan, which we all swear by, adds 1k to 1 run each week, with one sticking at 5k and the third shorter, so total increase is only about 10% per week. You’ve maybe been doing twice that?

For now, take a week off, your new-found fitness won’t vanish overnight 😀

[Hidden]

This is very interesting to me. I get the notion of running slower equals more impact for sure. Do you stretch and strengthen across the week and do some dynamic stretches before runs and static stretches after? These are a regular part of every day for me now, even non-run days. I am an advocate of slower runs with a shorter stride. I think just try not to overthink it all as there is so much information available we can sometimes lose our natural relaxed style and that's when we run best. Have a look at some channels like The Run Experience on YouTube for top tips if you like.

You're doing really well though. Keep going because consistency is simply everything.