Morning Everyone - once again I would love the benefit of your advice please. I graduated from C25K about 6 or 7 weeks ago and am really enjoying my gentle jogs every second or third day. Throughout the programme and during post-grad consolidation I had no problems with knees or hips....but I've noticed that with most of my runs now being 35 mins, I'm beginning to feel, not pain...not even an ache, but an 'awareness' that hips and knees are about to complain. This clears up on rest days, but returns post 20 minutes on the next run. I really really don't want to have to stop running due to hips/knees, nor do I particularly want to scale back to 20 mins permanently because for me 35/40 has been such a wonderful achievement. And I'd love to build up time...in the future.
This morning, I took the dogs for a walk in the park and had a few strictly fun jog-ettes, maybe 100-200m at a time, just to play with them. Could it be beneficial to continue this on all my twice daily walks with them, just to build up some strength?
I'd love to hear how other people have dealt with achey hips and knees - and managed to keep running.
I honestly don't think you have much to worry about to be honest. A lot of this comes down to your mental attitude and your tolerance to some discomfort. You are clear that these are not pains or aches, and after 1 day, all is ok - any physio or coach hearing that would probably tell you to crack on (with some caveats).
A lot of this is to be expected. Remember, you are still a beginner - your running journey is only 16 weeks old . It takes anything from 6 months to 2 years (yes, YEARS) for our bodies to become fully adapted to the stresses and strains of running/jogging.
"I really really don't want to have to stop running due to hips/knees, nor do I particularly want to scale back to 20 mins permanently because for me 35/40 has been such a wonderful achievement. And I'd love to build up time...in the future."
There's absolutely no need for you stop running - why would you have to? Only if that 'awareness' become an 'ache' which then become a 'pain' - at which point your body will make decisions for you.
Let's look at your options - with running, you have 3 variables to play with:
(1) Intensity
(2) Duration
(3) Frequency
Your intensity sounds fine (gentle jogging).
Your duration you've built up carefully but scaling back to 20 or 25 mins temporarily and then building back up again could be worth considering.
As for frequency - I'd suggest no more than 3 runs a week - the same pattern as C25K, for at least 6 months.
IMPORTANT OBSERVATION: If you've gone from 30 mins, 3 times a week for 4 weeks (ie C25K, Week 9, then 3 weeks of consolidation) and then you've increased to 35-40 mins every other day - that's a big increase in your running volume in a short space of time.
Remember that runners are at their most vulnerable to injury when they are beginners - and you are absolutely a beginner and will be for some time.
"This morning, I took the dogs for a walk in the park and had a few strictly fun jog-ettes, maybe 100-200m at a time, just to play with them. Could it be beneficial to continue this on all my twice daily walks with them, just to build up some strength?"
Sounds like good cross-training to me 👍😎
Bottom-line - there is no need to 'stop running' but more about respecting & understanding where you are in your running journey, accepting some level of discomfort (I don't mean pain!) that you perhaps haven't been used to , and playing about a bit with duration and frequency.
Another factor could be footwear - but that's another discussion.
What are you doing to support the knees and hips...?There are so many exercises which will help to relive those aches and pains.. did you check out the last post I did on this on the S and F site...
I would gently suggest that you take a look back at your last thread. The advice you’ll get is essentially exactly the same. Sometimes is takes a while to make peace with what suits our bodies best, but to move forward and avoid injuries, we need to listen to them.
Doing “most runs” at 35 minutes doesn’t sound like it’s right for where you are right now. If that’s how you’d like to run in the future, you can almost certainly build up to it, but if you carry on pushing yourself like this one of two things will likely happen-you’ll get injured or you’ll burn out. That would be such a shame when you’ve achieved so much to get here.
Keeping one run at 35 minutes but shortening the other two could allow you to feel like you’re not taking a step back. You could even add a minute or two to that one long run and that could even help you still feel like you’re progressing. Another way could be to increase all three runs, which is a good plan as long as you can accept that you’ll need to do it gradually and from the base you’d built from couch to 5k-ie 30 minutes not 35 minutes. Any strength and flex you can add in will help too.
There’s no need to think about stopping running-you just need to find a way to make it work for you. Good luck with whatever you decide.
Thanks MisUnderstanding...actually I have been following your advice and started doing two shorters for every one longer. In fact one of the shorters I'm breaking up into walk/run - is that what they call Fartlek, sort of? I should have made that clearer - but great advice, thanks.
Thanks for clarifying, I’m struggling to picture what your running looks like at the moment. Perhaps it might be helpful to share what runs you’ve done over the past say, ten days?
I think technically, fartlek involves constant running but mixing up the paces. There’s a nice explanation here…
Fartlek is literally, playing around with speeds – essentially, it’s a form of unstructured speedwork. It involves a continuous run in which periods of faster running are mixed with periods of easy- or moderate-paced running (not complete rest, as with interval training).
Ha ha - you and me both! To be honest I don't keep a record, even in my head, because I used to have a set pattern, but now...with quite a number of family upheavals, sudden babysitting, tropical storms, unexpected work etc, I'm a bit all over the place. But what I'm trying to do is 35 mins or so every third run....of the other two, one is a shorter run (maybe 20 mins) and the other is sneaking into the local cycle trail and jogging faster, slower and up and down the cycle hillocks. Depending on circumstances I'm running maximum every other day...minimum every 4 days. So it's very varied.
The guidance above is really good. I would just add that I found that different leg parts complained as my running progressed! In C25k it was my calves, and then as I increased distance my hips dropped into the picture to say “hello….this is a bit unusual”. My calves needed a bit of physio, but the hips just got used to the new distances and I haven’t heard from them since! So I think what you are describing is normal, and the two shorter runs and one long run pattern has been, and continues to be the whole basis of my increasing distance to HM. I follow that pattern every week.
My knees started to moan as I picked up pace. One became very painful. The solution from my physio was simple. As an older runner, my knees needed a bit of extra lubrication….so she told me to put a hot water bottle on them for 10/ 15 minutes before each run, and then gently massage the knee caps ….it works every time for me. I also did hip exercises ( clams etc) when the pain got really persistent….sometimes your knee joint is not tracking correctly ..the hip exercises helped that too ….so two problems fixed with one set of exercises….joy!!
Now, not every fix is as easy as that….but it often is. Enjoy your running; I think that you are doing really well.
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