Legs ache

[Jellyleg]

I am on week 8 run 3, I am 55 and doing this has caused pain in my achillies but doing streches and ice and I can do a slow jog on it, but my legs feel so tired and ache in the morning and feel heavy when i start running. I am over weight so trying to lose weight too and I am doing 10,000 steps a day minimum but my runs are included in this on days i run. What am I doing wrong I used to run 15 years ago and never felt like this will this wear off with time?

[Sax64 Graduate]

Hello and welcome, a huge well done for getting this far, absolutely brilliant. First and foremost, you should never run in pain as you will cause much more damage. On a score of 1 -10, where 10 is the worst pain ever, you should never run on anything more than mild discomfort or a 3/10. If you go over to the strength and flex or active 10 forums you will find loads of exercises you can do to strengthen those muscles and more besides. Running puts huge strains on your new running body and you need to allow time for it to adapt and start strengthening it up. I'm sure you'll get loads more advice too. Happy running🏃‍♀️

[Thejogger Graduate in reply to Sax64]

great effort to get this far similar to myself in week 8. So ye don’t run in pain use the stretching programme this helps a lot do pre and post stretching it’s much better than just going out the door. I’m sure you can complete this programme, my advice is just go slow the speed doesn’t matter just the timings the speed comes later so just keep well and keep going you got this

[Jellyleg in reply to Sax64]

I am doing the warm up exercises before and streches after, after reading up on what all the replies say I am trying to hard I used to run 10.5 minute miles and am now struggling doing 12.5 and I now realise I now need to go even slower and possibly do some strength training exercise on my legs, I have found some videos on you tube so going to give this ago, my pain in achillies is about 3,was more so rested for 2 weeks and repeated weeks 6 and 7 to get back into programme, I would say my achillies is more stiffness now. Just ordered a foam roller too.

[nowster Graduate]

The motto of Couch to 5K is "No pain, no pain."

Pain is your body's way of telling you something's wrong.

My wild guess is you're trying too hard, remembering what you used to be able to do.

If you haven't already, have a look at the FAQ in the pinned posts on the right. healthunlocked.com/couchto5...

In there is the link to a video on Japanese Slow Running, a good way of reducing impact problems.

The other thing to check is whether you're drinking enough, given you say you feel as though your legs are heavy.

Doing any exercise will cause you to sweat and also breathe more, both ways of losing fluids. Whilst many sources suggest drinking 2 to 3 litres per day, that might be excessive for most. The best measure is to look at the colour of your urine: a light straw colour is ideal, dark yellow means you're drinking too little, and colourless means you're drinking too much. Be aware that vitamin pills and certain foods can affect the colour.

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate]

Welcome.. nowster has given you some good advice... take it steady as you go, and maybe pop across to the Strength and Flex forum, to check out some great strength and stamina work and exercise for those legs!

These include some great morning ones to get you going! Let is know how you go on please!