I am a veritable couch potato, but recently a friend invited me to join her jogging group. Normally, I am too much of a slug to even bother going outside for neighborhood walks, but I thought, “Well, I am prediabetic, have an excess 12 pounds of visceral fat on my last scan, have sleep apnea, high LDL cholesterol, and am not getting any younger, so I guess…yes?”
The first jog was 3 miles. Everyone in the group is a seasoned jogger (many of them do 10K or half-marathons), while I had hardly done any running in the last decade, but to my surprise, I managed to keep up for the entire 3 miles with no particular difficulty (other than the usual soreness one would expect.) Then, a couple weeks later, I did a 4-mile jog with them, again with no apparent hardship. I even felt like I could have gone another two miles if I had to. I felt no unusual soreness the next day.
Now, it helps that the group’s jogging pace is pretty slow and usually there are a few rests of 30+ seconds in between. But am I risking some silent injury sneaking up on me? I keep reading about “Couch to 5K” programs but here I am going from zero jogging to already exceeding 5K (four miles is over 6K) with no gradual easing into it in between. I’m sure the gradual recommendation must exist for a reason.
While I think your doctor may have preferred that you started out with a 3 mile brisk walk, a 3 mile run is not that far off from what I see people doing on a treadmill at the gym (not me!). You may want to talk with your doctor and get a stress test just for the peace of mind.
What are your goals? I 3-4 mile run every few weeks is unlikely to cause any significant issues as long as you’re not feeling pain during or after (other than some soreness). If you start running more often without getting some guidence, proper shoe fitting, and learn to stretch and strengthen you will likely end up with some sort of repetitive use injury, either foot, knee, or hamstrings.
Do you want to get faster, run further, race? Group runs with knowledgeable runners is a great place to learn that stuff. Get some instruction on stretching and strengthening and you’re good to go, at least for most common distances.
Some folks are capable of running starting from little or no activity. Others require much more of a relaxed ramp up. You’re one of the lucky ones, and you found a group that matches your pace.
The older you are and the faster the pace, the greater risk of injuries. Pay a lot of attention to any pain you feel while running. That may be an indication you are injuring yourself at that moment. You may also feel pain come on sometime afterwards. That’s usually from swelling or lactic acid buildup when you work out too hard. That pain will typically fade with rest. Work out a little easier to avoid that kind of pain. Don’t overdo it or else your body won’t have time to recover between workouts. Right now your muscles, tendons, and cartilage are adapting to the workout. If you go to fast or to far, you’ll work them too hard and risk getting injured. But if you can do the workout and feel good afterwards, you should be good.
It looks like it’s been a few weeks since that first run and you haven’t suffered any ill consequences, so you’re probably going to be ok. There was a time when I could do that, too, but I was generally more active in my daily life than I am now. If I were to try that today, I know I’d wake up in the middle of the night with leg cramps, either in my calves, hamstrings, or quads. Possibly all three muscle groups, and possibly in both legs. How do I know this? It’s happened. It’s damn near impossible to stretch out a calf cramp AND a hamstring cramp AND a quad cramp at the same time, too. So in recent years, I’ve slowly ramped up my activity in both duration and intensity when starting something new. Age and infirmity are a bitch.
Thanks, I don’t really have any goals other than just health and socializing. If it’s just 3-6 miles each week, that sounds good to me. The most I might ever do would be a 10K or half-marathon. The group asked me if I would do a full marathon someday and I said no way.
How slow is “pretty slow”? A brisk walk can be upwards of 4 MPH - so 15 minutes per mile. If you are jogging a 12 minute pace - and taking rest breaks, you aren’t really exerting yourself much more than that.
I suspect any risk of injury would occur if you suddenly and significantly upped the pace and frequency. But doesn’t seem like you are inclined to do that, so enjoy!
Do you warm up and stretch before and after? Because if not, that’s where you’re likely to cause yourself an injury. I’ve done the couch to 5k, and you always start and end each run with stretching and a 5 minute brisk walk either side to avoid any muscle strain.
That, and invest in some really good running shoes - and change them often.
I started running again as a way to help get back in shape. I started back with 3 mile walk/run with no intentions of going more than 5 miles.When I got to 5 miles, I figured a 10K was right there. Eventually my goal was 10 miles. When I achieved that, my brother (an experienced marathoner) said “If you can run 10 miles, a half marathon is just a 5K more.”
Based on my personal experience, the most likely problem you could encounter is Achilles pain or actual injury if you do a lot of uphill stretches in your run. If you stick to mostly flat ground with only an occasional elevated grade you should be fine.
Yes, because it is never a good thing to “shock” your body, especially when you are middle aged or older. I also believe that a brisk walk (sustained 3 mph or so) is far easier on the feet, ankles, knees and hips than running.
Jumping straight into it is probably not the best idea. I would recommend a good C25K program. The NHS has a good twelve week program that may still be available on iTunes. It turned me into a runner, at least until my back blew out.
Oh - and paging @running_coach, who guided me on my running journey fifteen years ago.
Here’s couch to 5K - you can download the app from this website. No ads. It’s excellent, if you don’t mind a mentor who’ll be a British athlete or TV personality that no American will have heard of (I favour Jo Whiley, a radio DJ with a soft encouraging tone. Former Olympian Steve Cram is a bit hard ball).
@Velocity, doing a jog every few weeks won’t do anything.
You need at least 3 bouts a week to make progress. You might get away with doing the full 3-4 without problems until you start doing them with only a day or two break.
Try jogging twice a week to start with two days of brisk walking(All the aerobic at a fraction of the impact.) Be aware that bone density takes much longer to develop than aerobic fitness so you need to be cautious about upping the miles too quickly.
Injuries in distance running tend to be from long term stress rather than abrupt. You can also do some cycling on the off days, just be aware of fatigue levels. Establish your waking heart rate, more than 5-10% over baseline means you need rest not a workout. Fitness gains come from the recovery process, not the workout.
Not wanting to disagree, but pointing out one oddity I recently encountered. I’m 65 and my sister 69. She is ridiculously fit - does yoga daily, works out at YMCA classes several times/week, and we bike 25-30 miles 2-3x/week - in addition to daily walks. Her calcium has always been low, and she recently passed the level into osteoporosis. In addition to upping her dietary calcium intake, she has been instructed to incorporate “jumping” exercises into her routine. And not alighting gently on the balls of her feet, but landing on her heels. Supposed to help encourage bone growth. She has been jumping rope.
I agree with easing into things and generally avoiding impact when possible. Just wanted to poin this out, as it was so recent and odd to both of us.
Running coach is the expert. While I agree that infrequent slow jogs/quick walks is not going to do much good, nor is it likely to cause any harm. As I get older, my workout mantra is keep the carcass moving. A slow jog sure beats sitting on the sofa eating chips!
HOLY CRAP!!! Tell her to stop with the the high impact activities.
She needs weight bearing only to begin with, walking (not hard or high impact)will be safe.
Also have her stand as much as possible where she might sit, like watching TV.
