First park run ever! Will I suffer from no warm-up?

[Janfran]

I'v just got home from my very first park run. My plans went all to pot! I had intended to start by doing my warm-up five minute walk, and then run in a leisurely fashion as much as I could for the rest of the way. Not putting any pressure on myself, and knowing that I can easily able to run for 30 mins.

So, I strode to the back of the pack of runners - and there, also at the back, was someone I knew slightly from a choir we both used to be in. When the run started, he started running (not surprisingly!) so I did too. The long and the short of it is that we ran (well slowly jogged) and chatted all the way round. No walking at all!! So I'm feeling very proud of myself on this first day of 2019, and looking forward to doing it all again on Saturday (when I won't have been up past midnight the night before!)

How terrible is it to start running, even slowly, without a warm-up? And I got straight in the car to drive home afterwards - no cool-down either. I did however do my stretching exercises once I got home. Am I going to suffer later?

Any more New Year's Day first-timers out there?

[Littleangelkaz Graduate]

Hi Janfran I also ran my first park run this morning. Go us!

I did a 5min warm down walk afterwards and like you I completed most of my stretches when I got home. I think I'm going to ache a bit too, but today was my first full 5k as I had been averaging at 4.5 on the treadmill.

[Janfran Graduate in reply to Littleangelkaz]

Well done Littleangelkaz! So great, isn't it? I reckon I'll be aching too as I've only done 3.5k up until now. Running slowly was the key, I think. I hope my time will be easy to improve on! I plan to park somewhere five minutes' walk from the park run start in future, so that I can do the warm-up and cool-down walks.

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

Elite runners warm up and cool down to avoid injury...............so it is wise to copy them.

This article explains why runnersworld.com/health-inj...

[Janfran Graduate in reply to IannodaTruffe]

Thanks for the link, IannodaTruffe. I certainly don't want any injuries!