Cold mornings. More prone to muscle injury?

[earl-grey-sian]

I'm just starting out on this, after 2 false starts due to injury. I ran Thursday afternoon and was absolutely fine. But yesterday morning, it was very cold. After about 10 minutes I felt a familiar pain building up in my calf. I cut my session short, walked for a bit then jogged VERY gently back to my car.

Anyway, my question is: are muscles more prone to injury in cold weather?

It could, of course, just be that I keep forgetting that my body is 48 years old, unfit and overweight, as in my head I'm still 28 and relatively slim!

[swanscot Graduate]

Yes, cold, stiff muscles are more prone to injury.

I like to warm up in the house before stepping outside on the cold mornings. I often run up and down the stairs simply because I've forgotten something - earphones, gloves, Garmin, phone, etc,then I spend 5 minutes doing marching/dancing/aerobic movement in my kitchen. If it's really cold out, I go for a brisk warm up walk up the road wearing my jogging pants and sweatshirt, then return to the house to leave these - I prefer to run in capri pants and running shirt.

You can do any low impact exercise - walking, marching, knee lifts, butt kicks, jumping jacks, or anything else that's easy on your body but gets the blood flowing before running.

[earl-grey-sian Graduate]

Thanks swanscot. I will heed your advice in future. I did the 5 minutes brisk walk warm up, but it obviously wasn't enough