Help please - motivation waning due to shin pain in Week 5 Run 3

[Anniemurph]

Hi there - I've been lurking on here for a while, encouraged by you all. I'm taking c25k very slowly, but have now reached Week 5 and was just about managing run 2. I find it hard to stop and start, and the second run is always better than the first, so in Week 5 Run 2, the first 8 minutes was sheer hell but the second was quite comfortable. I tried the 20 minute run today, but stopped after Laura told me I'd done 10 minutes because my shins and calves were so painful I was in tears by the side of the track.

I went for gait analysis and have wonderful shoes. I'm overweight but I can tell my fitness is improviing because my max heart rate is decreasing on each run I do, and my recovery time in between runs is fine. I wasn't particularly out of breath today, I was well-hydrated and had eaten a small breakfast a couple of hours before I started. It was a flat run.

The support and motivation on this community is wonderful, as are the ideas and suggestions from everyone. Any thoughts on how to keep going? I don't want to give up but this is demoralising

[Fuzzyrex Graduate]

Are you stretching after your runs at all? I get some shin ache/pain but just assumed thats my legs adjusting to jogging,this also helps youtube.com/watch?v=66r_kWv...(Not working as expected?)

toe taps

[Legion Graduate in reply to Fuzzyrex]

Great tip, thanks. Got a little shin pain after my run on Monday but was ok today. Will add this to my repertoire for improvement.

[Anniemurph Graduate in reply to Fuzzyrex]

Oh, thank you - I didn't realise there were exercises to help. I'll do these three times a day as suggested and see if that makes a difference. I can really feel it when I try them, so hopefully things will improve

[Tiger79 Graduate]

Toe taps helped lots for me as did ten days off running - due to arrival of new puppy and some running ortho insoles. I havent suffered shin pain since using the insoles and I think the break helped repair the damage that was there

[Anniemurph Graduate in reply to Tiger79]

New puppy is good! Can I ask which insoles you bought and where you found them? My new trainers are very comfortable but it would be interesting to see what you use. Thanks for the advice - don't really want to take another break from running, but it might be better than trying to carry on like this.

[Tiger79 Graduate in reply to Anniemurph]

I have scholl ortho ones like these specific for running/ sports

scholl.com/en-GB/Scholl-Ort...

[Anniemurph Graduate in reply to Tiger79]

Thanks, Tiger79 - I'll check them out.