Tough, but I did it. I'm still experiencing deep muscle pain , but expect that is par for the course. Despite some pain, I'm quite happy to be outside and proud that I completed the run again. Woo hoo!
Week 3 run 2: Tough, but I did it. I'm still... - Couch to 5K
Week 3 run 2
Well done! Woot woot! The muscles will start getting used to the new demands soon. Make sure that you stretch after you run
Once you're in Week 3, you're really getting into it. Lovely park or bit of countryside you have to run in there. Great to hear you're enjoying it.
One thing I found helped with stiffness was to warm down a bit longer, and to ease off down to quite a leisurely stroll.
For some stiffness, breathing a bit more heavily than you feel the need to (careful, though) can sometimes help clear it. You build up sarcolactic acid when you go anaerobic (basically when your muscles don't run on oxygen), and it's that that makes you feel stiff (roughly). The stiffness goes as oxygen arrives, and the lactic acid is metabolised. (I think once there's oxygen around, it's actually "food" or fuel). So if you supply a bit of excess oxygen, you reuse some of your lactic acid buildup as fuel, and have less pain as a bonus. Too much of this and you're hyperventilating, though, which I've heard can be into-the-coffin lethal.
The other side is that it's not a good idea to try and breathe less noisily or whatever (to try and breathe less, to look more cool, I suppose). If you're out of puff, pant; it's good for you. (And I suspect that that last sentence is the only one that isn't dodgy. All the rest is really just a hypothesis I have that I've convinced myself "feels like it works").
Well done! That's a really nice view 😊