Running every day?

[E27M14]

I’m on a rest day today and went out for a walk to check out a longer route for future runs and get an idea in my mind of what 5k actually looks like. Took me 55 minutes to walk. Anyway, this got me thinking and I was wondering at what point is it Ok to run every day? On here everyone says it’s really important to take the rest days and mostly I’m not sure I’d feel up to running every day yet, but I see lots of friends posting on FB about “Runvember” and Red January, where they run every day for a month for various charities. So at what point does it become OK?

[SaskAlliecat Graduate]

For your body to handle the strain of everyday running and to reduce the risk of injury, it is believed that you should have a full year of regular running under your belt, and of course, it is very important to listen to your body and given a break when needed. For RED January, it may stand for "Run every day" but I believe it can be done as doing some form of activity every day, be it running, walking, swimming, cycling, etc which would be doable at any stage of your running journey. It is good to be active on rest days to help build strength in your body and loosen any tight areas from your run.

[Couchpotato2 Graduate in reply to SaskAlliecat]

Yes I looked into RED and it's an activity rather than a run. I have wondered about doing 2 consecutive days sometimes but then thought, rest is probably just as important and don't want to get injured. I walk and swim in between.

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

When you run you create microtears in your muscles, which repair and strengthen on your rest days. You need to establish a strong runner's body before considering running on consecutive days and this is generally reckoned to be after six months to a year of regular running and strengthening on rest days.

It is certainly not advisable for those undertaking C25K.

[AlMorr Ambassador Graduate]

Experts advise new runners to have one day off between runs up to a year, after that you can run every day, especially if you are training for a half or full marathon.

55 minutes is a reasonable time to walk a 5K, I have walked a 5K often on a measured 5k course near to where I live, the times varying from a stroll taking 70 minutes, a almost power walk taking 48 minutes to a PB 5K run of 32.25.

Red January sounds a good idea for running for a charity but if you are running every day just take the runs slowly and you should be OK.

[ktsok Graduate]

😳

[UnfitNoMore Graduate]

Running every day is actually not recommended by coaches for us mere mortals ever... but 6 days a week is good... once you’re an established runner... with fully conditioned muscles... so that is maybe 2 years away... going back to back running days at all is something for after at least 6-12 months into your running journey.

There are lots of stories of people who just went for it and ran every day from the start... those people are very vocal about it... for each of them there’s probably 100 who did it, and got injured because of it... they don’t sing and shout about that so much, dunno why 😂

Keep the injury risk down... follow the plan... run smart.

REDJanuary, where RED stands for “run every day” as a project have themselves changed the challenge to being active every day... which probably says a lot when you think about it. You can be active every day any time you like.