Need some advice

[Razouski]

I have recently been helping a friend who has been recovering from rupturing both his quads. Having taken over a year to master the art of walking his physiotherapist told him he needed to start running to build up the muscles. So on some of my rest days I've been accompanying him on a walk with very short intervals. First week we did 8 x 30seconds, last week was 45 second intervals of which he did 11 by run 3. This week we've done one run with 8 intervals of 1 minute and cut the walk intervals to 90 seconds - so pretty much like Week 1 of C25K.

He is doing really well, but what I'm worried about is that as his running increases, will I be putting my self at risk. I am running three times a week for myself in between his runs: one longer run (9or 10 k) one 5k and a shorter run using Speed.

I'm not quite sure how to keep my support for him and still keep up my own running schedule over the next few weeks. Any advice would be welcome.

[Millsie-J Graduate]

Hi!

When my daughter was recovering from surgery and began C25k i had similar. What we did was ran loops of a park where you can see each other all the time. One of you can loop back at times if you wish. It means you both have to commit to each running session, so will support him to get out there, and you can double back if you see him flaudering. If you want to do several loops together you can but for example you can run the intervals fast then double back to him etc. It might work for you.

[Rignold]

At risk of what? Overtraining? No. because you will are building up from scratch at a sustainable rate, and its unlikely he is going to progress to running extreme distances (and if he did, then presumably your work would be done by that point). If you get to the stage he is doing 5k, then running 5k six times a week is far from overdoing it. And in a worst case scenario where you find you are too tired or whatever, just cut down one o fyour own runs. You will be getting enough volume so wat does it matter which day it is on?

[Razouski in reply to Rignold]

Thanks Rignold . I just didn't want to risk injury. I ran 10K yesterday on my own, and today met up with my buddy and we did the equivalent of Week 1 C25K. I was fine, and he insisted on doing an extra interval and some extra walking at the end to cover 5k. In fact he was really pleased as in spite of being totally out of breath and "leaking profusely" he managed to cover the 5k in about 37 minutes. He's on holiday next week, so I shall just nag him via text and get myself back down the gym on my own rest days.

[JaySeeSkinny Graduate]

I ran with a friend who was just starting up on holiday. We did easy runs on alternate days and I ran on my own on the other days. Effectively streaking. I ended up running 10 out of 11 days and it was fine. Mind you I was on holiday and I didn't push myself even when running on my own - I was too busy trying not to get lost!

[Razouski in reply to JaySeeSkinny]

Thanks JaySeeSkinny I feel much more reassured that I'm not going to come to harm.