Beginner/Pain in Knees.

[RolyPolyLolly]

I have only just started couch to 5k, I'm only 5 days in. I walk everywhere and often do 3-4 mile walks with my dog but I've never jogged before. Within 10 minutes I experience such intense pain in my knees and side of leg/few inches above my ankle that it makes me cry. Should I just keep working through it? I have a very high pain threshold but it is a struggle to keep going.

I am very overweight so imagine weightloss will help. I've ordered new running shoes since my current ones are just terrible cheap ones. Also where I am walking/jogging is very hilly and the pain is much worse going up hill.

[Hennith Graduate]

Well done for starting on the plan! If I was experiencing such intense pain at such an early stage I think I'd get it checked out before going any further to be honest. Always better to be safe than sorry

[crox Graduate]

I can recommend gait analysis.

It could just be your knees adjusting to the exercise, but it's best to get it checked out.

Have a look on the internet for running techniques, if you heel strike (which I did when I started) then you' be putting high impact stresses through your knees, try running barefoot up and down the corridor and you'll see you quickly switch to mid foot. Over striding can be another issue, take shorter strides and try to land with your feet underneath your hips.

[waletta Graduate]

That much pain doesn't sound good. I'm with the others - gait analysis & maybe sports physio to check it out.

[misswobble Graduate]

It could be simply new runners knees. You can get good shoes that aren't that expensive. I got Karrimor ones and I'm getting on well with them. I had new runners knees, which is not surprising really if you've never run before and you're overweight. You only have to run for 60 seconds at the beginning. If you're walking a lot with the dog, as I do, you use different sets of muscles and shoes, and I found that if I ran on the same day or the following day I would get painful knees. Mine got better as I did more of the runs. I posted on here that my knees felt swollen. If you have a rest day in between runs it gives you time to recover. I wouldn't give up but if you're worried see your GP. We're only talking gentle jogging here by the way, not big striding fast running. Let's know how you get on. Good luck