I love running, it and walking are the only sports for me, Yet I am constantly getting injured ie: hamstring pull, shinsplints and some pain on outside of shin... But now I am ffully rested, and ready to go ...

The year before last I ran a few 10k runs and was actually on my way to some vague hope of doing a half marathon. But my sedatory design job working self employed doubled with trying to run three small businesses has left me not training properly or that often. Increase in Beer and has a knock on effect mg weight ha gained to 15st(95kg) which with a height of just over 6ft (183 cm)= a BMI of 28 eek apparently = overweight. . .

Twice last week I ran 4k each time. Basically I get up get in car, drive to downs get out and run be it slowly come back and sit down to work again.

I know this is probably all wrong, but what should be doing, should I walk 1k then run the rest or vicar versa, just dont feel walking gives me enough exercise

Also I know I Must cut out the Beer in the week at least, don't think my weight helps my week shinny ankles

Please can I have some advice or maybe point me in the right direction

Howdy Captain!

So as I understand it, you're pushed for time and injury prone, but want to run and lose some weigh - maybe going on to do some races...

Right well firstly - you should be able to squeeze in a run somewhere in your day... even if it's only 30mins. I always find that a nice run destresses me no-end so is a great way to help you through the working week... even if it's just a short run - and whilst I can imagine it being great to run across the downs, there's nowt wrong with just popping your trainers on and having a run down the road or round the estate (depending on your location).

As for training content - as long as you don't push hard from the outset, you should be fine to run the entire distance rather than walking (if you feel the walking isn't exercising you enough). There's plenty of training schedules around for people of all abilities - so it's just a case of searching for one you think you can manage and just going for it...

I hope that's of some use, and not just complete waffle! But feel free to ask as many questions as you can think of and the forum shall help all it can

Oh, and don't worry about your weight... it'll soon drop once you're running

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Thanks Richard, very helpful, I am thinking of doing the first kilometer walking briskly, then running at my pretty slow pace for around 4K then walking the last K to warm down, then hopefully do some stretches and situps n all, what stretches are best to warm up and down, do you need to stretch before, maybe I should maybe this is why I always get an injury before I can really get into a running routine.

You probably shouldn't stretch cold muscles, make sure you warm up before any stretching... I usually just warm up then go straight into a run, then just stretch afterwards as part of a cool down.

Listing the best stretches has never been one of my strong points, as there's so many of them and I bloomin awful at explaining them! lol. Again, If you just tap something like "stretching for runners" into google, it'll soon find you more on the subject than you'd ever care to read!

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Ok cheers will do, Google has loads of stretching exercise, great, but warming up, would a 1K hard walk do that, how do you warm up ?

indeed a hard 1k walk would warm you up... all warming up is, is to get the body reasonably active so that the muscles are loosened up a bit and more flexible ready for any intense exercise... If you just into intense exercise from cold, there's a higher chance of something going twang!

For a warm up I usually just have a very gentle jog around, do some heel flicks or whatever they're called (kicking your backside with your heels) and raise my knees up a bit, then a few basic stretches before heading out on my run.

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I usually just warm up with 5 mins hard walk, then do a couple of stretches (generally just calves and quads as they're the muscles I personally find need the most stretching). Then at the end, I do a cool down walk and then lots of different leg stretches plus back and shoulders if I feel I need them. I probably do more stretching at the end than I really need for running purposes, but as I do Tae Kwon Do too, I take every opportunity to increase my leg flexibility. In fact, in the 3 months I've been running, I've significantly improved my flexibility - another beneficial side-effect of running to add to the >1 stone I've lost in weight as well

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Cautiously potter-along puddy

I like the sound of Take on Do Too, sounds a bit like a character out of Star Wars...

Thanks for the tips on warming up and down will try them out this arvo