Will it ever get any better - my poor old legs!

[helenf28]

Went out for run 2 of week 6. It was a rather chilly evening despite the sun trying its hardest. It was nice to see the lambs in the fields :D. Not so nice to nearly get squished by a white van (the dangers of outside running)

My breathing seems easier - it didn't take as long for my lungs to get used to the request for extra oxygen! (Although I was going super slow .....@"). I may have been distracted by my constant fiddling with the flipping earphones for my iPod though - I must get something better.

My main issue this run was the pain in my lower legs - it just doesn't seem to be getting any easier. My muscles and tendons are not very happy with this kind of use . Somebody please tell me that it will get easier - it's not even tired muscles it's proper pain. Not sure I could run for 5K just yet. On the upside I won the mental battle tonight and ran through the pain. I'm not looking forward to run 3 - 25 minutes without stopping is a big challenge. I will enlist the support of my other half to help me get through it!

Whilst I am dreading the next run I was surprised that I recovered much more quickly after the 1st run. A few weeks ago I was shouting at Laura telling her "no I wasn't recovered!" Now the 3 minutes was definitely enough time to recover.

All in all it's been a mixed bag with this run. Some gains and some pain!

[con-brio Graduate]

Well done on completing the run. Watch out not to overload your legs... take an extra day's rest if needs be: there's no harm in playing it safe.

[SBG356 Graduate]

Please please be careful with the leg pain! As con-brio says, take extra rest days if needed.

But very well done on your run despite this and I hope your OH helps you through the next run; thats lovely!

Sue

[greenlegs Graduate]

Leg pain is usually an indication something isn't quite right - maybe landing on heels? - taking too-long steps? going a bit too fast? shoes not right?

If rest doesn't sort it out, it's definitely worth investigating whether changing the way you run makes a difference. Hope that is helpful rather than offputting.

[Souki Graduate]

All of the above and maybe some extra stretching other than the 5 min warm up walk, helped for me

Good luck x

[redfacewoman Graduate]

Have you had your gait analysis done? It makes massive difference well done for keep going x

[julieg21]

Massive congratulations to you Helen for 6.2. Your blog could have been mine! It's quite a surprise how hard week 6 is after we conquered 5.3, you think it will be easier, maybe one day running will become easier!

The main thing is you did it and so did I, I am also not looking forward to the next run, but hopefully with all the encouragement we get from this site and our OHs that will get us through. I've developed an ankle injury and I don't even know how it happened, but hoping to run 6.3 on Saturday if its feeling better by then.

With regard to your pain, do you stretch for long at the end of your runs? As I've increased my running I have increased the length I hold my stretches for approx 30secs and have increased the amount of them. I am also trying to do some light stretches on the rest days.

Good luck for the next run and hopefully we will be congratulating each other soon : ) Julie

[paterson]

Well done on what you have done. On rest days do some yoga type stretching which really helps the muscles. There are a lot of short practices on You tube.

[Landesman Graduate]

With regard to the earphones, I had this too at the start. The in-ear buds are hopeless for running and pop out even when you think you have jammed them in beyond the point of no return. I solved the problem with a cheap pair of the over-the-ear type (£8 from sweatshop) which stay in place just fine and do the job for me.

[helenf28]

Thanks for the comments. I think I need to stretch a lot more. The pain is more of a tightening rather shooting pain and isn't in my joints and abates immediately after running stops. I'm going to try some yoga poses such as walking the dog to see if that helps. I will also check out sweat shop for the ear phones