I too recently started training for a half marathon. Ran/walk for about an hour three days ago and still am pretty sore. Expected to have trouble breathing or with acheing calves, but strangely my lower shins (just above the ankles) begain hurting before anything. Not severe pain, mind you, but enough to put me in walk mode. Of course the only shoes I had available were steel toed work boots, so I’ll see how the next run goes in tennis shoes…
I decided to start running last week. My husband ran a half-marathon in November and is hoping to train for a marathon this year. I started trying to get in better shape around the middle of last year (good thing, or I would not even be able to think about running.) Of course, this was the worst possible time of year to start running. We made it out 4 times last week but it’s really really really cold (we’re in Boston.) It’s not really conducive or even particularly safe (icy roads as well as those sub-zero windchills) to be out. So I have to battle my own particular bugbear. I need to get back on the stationary bike this week while I can’t run. I HATE the stationary bike. I already love running even doing a run-walk starting program. But if I am going to run I am going to need the discipline to keep up the cross-training on the days off from running. Bleh.
When I started up with the fitness, even on the low impact of the stationary bike, my right ankle went wonky. I had to get a pair of really good ankle support shoes (saucony) and start all over again nice and slow until the ankle was good and strong. But that’s probably helping me a lot now when I try to run.
Oh and having a personal coach who lives with me doesn’t hurt.
Thanks for starting the thread, I’m now motivated to go get on that stationary bike RIGHT NOW! 
I always run so I strike mid-foot first. But it really depends upon what is most efficient and comfortable for your body. Once you get used to running, your body generally falls into line and your stride gets more efficient. However, here’s a good article from Runners World on beginning running form: Running Form. These are some pretty decent, basic guidelines. One thing this article doesn’t mention specifically is to keep your shoulders back and down. If you let them creep up around your ears, both your legs and your shoulders will be sore later. And I second Scylla’s suggestion that you stop running for a day or two. As you said, hopping on the elliptical trainer instead might not be a bad idea. And next time you run, perhaps you can make your intervals of running a little shorter and further spaced out with longer walking recovery time in between until your legs get more accustomed to the impact. Whatever you do, you don’t want to associate running with pain. It’s normal to be a little sore in the beginning, but if it hurts to walk, you should avoid running for a day or two and see how you feel.
I started running again for, at least, the 10th time last August. Every previous attempt I’d stop after 2 or 3 weeks. It was always the same thing, after half a mile I was always gasping for breath and my heart felt like it was going to pound out of my chest. I’d walk a little and then try to run again and soon my legs hurt, my hip hurt, and most of all, my shins hurt. My mantra: running sucks!
Then I had a friend that was as out of shape as I was who took up running with a group of people called Team in Training. She finished a marathon and finally pesuaded me to sign up and give it a shot. I didn’t think a marathon was remotely doable so I signed up for a half marathon. Deep down I figured I’d count it a victory if I could even do a 5K given that I had never even been able to run a mile at one time in my life.
The start date for training was at the beginning of September and I didn’t really want to embarass myself by showing up and collapsing after half a mile so I started going to a track every other day beginning about a month before my first “official” training session. Sure enough things started out the same way. After a half a mile I felt awful! So I walked a lap to catch my breath and then I ran another lap. I think that first day I moved about 2 miles and at the end of it I was tired and sore. I had a plan that I would add one lap running and one lap walking on each session. After 2 weeks I had added a little distance but I still felt sore and out of breath and I still couldn’t jog more than half a mile without needing to rest. This was the point where I had always quit. But this time was different. This time I had a goal and I had people that were supporting me. So I kept going. On the third week, I started on my first lap around the track and as I turned the first corner I expected to feel my breathing pick up and my heart to pound. It didn’t. I finished my first half mile feeling, well, not great but at least not as bad as I expected! What did feel great was a sense that I had managed to cross a hurdle that I had never crossed before.
Too soon September came and I had to start “officially” training. The first day was easy, 1/2 mile. The second was a little harder at 1 mile. That day I ran 1 mile without stopping for the first time in my life. I was so happy!
That 1 mile run had a price though. I still had a lot of aches in my legs and shins but the pain was more like the pain I have after a good workout so I never felt like I was damaging myself. Still, I had a schedule to maintain. By the end of the first week we were expected to be at 2 miles. When I started that run I fully expected that I’d hobble in after walking most of my second mile home. As I ran my first mile I felt the familiar pains. First my thighs felt warm and tight and then they loosened and felt better. Then my calves warmed up, tightened, ached, and then loosened. Finally at about the 1 mile mark my shins tightened up and started to hurt. I decided to walk for a minute and in that minute they loosened right up. The second mile felt great! I learned then that the first mile was all about my body loosening up and preparing itself to run. The first mile is always awful! Once you get past that first mile though it’s all cake from there.
I ran my first half marathon on Dec 14th and am now training for a full one sometime this summer. Trust me, the hardest part of my training were those first 2 months as I tried to convince my body that I was really serious about getting in shape.
Keep at it these first 2 weeks. Don’t let the heavy breathing and heart rate get you down because that will get better sooner than you know. Keep your muscles stretched and keep strengthening them. Believe me, the joy of crossing the finish line after your first event is undescribable. Don’t miss it!
Good Luck!
I should really echo this. Three miles and two hundred meters is a looooong race, and tohugh I was never a fan of Kenny Rogers to begin with, “The Greatest” played on and on in my head most often this year. I didn’t even think about the song until my first 800m was over, and then it starts to play. Choose your music carefully.
The common wisdom is that you should stretch after you run, and not before. Stretching beforehand can cause injury. Running will warm you up all by yourself, if you start slow.
Stretch afterwards, not before.
Yes. It’s wrong. So is toe to heel. Do you ever see somebody who seems to be new to running get on a treadmill and they go “bang! bang! bang!” as they land?
That’s bad.
Watch a runner on a treadmill and you’ll notice he doesn’t make a lot of noise. You want to avoid the big impact when you run. You don’t want to think about your landing as an impact, but as an absorbtion process. The ball of your foot should make first contact on the outside and roll towards the inside (though some people do it the other way. Being a woman, the outside landing is more natural.) Before significant weight comes down your toes should also make contact. You’re placing your feet down, not slamming them. When you have that stable point of contact along the front half of your foot, your knees and hips should rotate slightly as your foot rotates down and weight comes into it. Your full weight should be on that foot right as your heel makes contact (if it does,) but the idea is that a very insignificant part of your weight is in you heel. As your body passes your center of gravity for the next step your heel goes up and you push off again with the ball of your feet.
This sounds really complicated, but it isn’t. It’s a very natural stride, and one that’s as low impact and sustainable as possible. Most runners find this on their own, but you can find it quicker if you look for it.
Something that can help you find it is to kick your heels up so that they are almost touching your butt when you run, while at the same time, making an effort to run with your arms high and slightly in front of you.
Do you see how high those Kenyans kick behind them. How far forward they hold their arms. They are practically gliding or floating across the ground. There is almost no impact in their strides.
Neither you nor I will be running 4 minute miles, so you don’t need to go to the extreme, but consciously trying to emulate it will help you find the stride you need, and help you with your landings.
If you are on the treadmill, you will know you’re on the right track when your landings stop going “bam! bam! bam!”
Unfortunately, all the stretching in the world is not going to reform abused cartilage and bone. Good form will preserve what you got, while strenghening the surrounding muscles and tendons. The slowest part of your run should always be the beginning. The best is a nice long slow warmup before your run
I wear 10 wides, and even those leave me some wiggle room. Most of the women I work with have bigger feet than me. I think it’s safe to say that it was the shoes.
As far as the Chambersburg half-marathon goes, I’ll try to be in shape for that, but right now I have other things on my mind.
Congratulations, Jadis!
My advice is to stick to it. Many people find starting up (or getting back into) running very difficult at first. It may be a while (a few months, even) before you get the runner’s high. Or you might go through a bad patch.
Stick with it and running will give you so much.
Have you chosen a 5K race yet? You’re going to love it!
Actually, I haven’t…I picked the 5K training program because it sets a real, tangible goal. Saying “I need to get in better shape” is too vague, I need something specific to work towards. The reason I want to try this is that my sister (who is the Fitness Queen) has asked me to do a short adventure race sometime this fall, and I figured that training to run would be the best first step I could take. The adventure race will probably be mt biking/running/paddling…my legs have always been strong, so the mt biking should take care of itself if I can up my endurance through running.
My knee is still killing me today, though…I was going to try the elliptical trainer tonight, but I think I’m going to pass and give it a few more days to rest and see how things look on Monday.