Hi all

i thought id vent some frustration. i took up running nearly two months ago now and so far i have had more performance hindering injuries in that time than when i was lifting weights and kickboxing. the problem is im totally hooked on running and get so down when i cant go out due to pains in knees, shins, ankles or anywhere a niggling feeling decides to manifest itself. i never thought putting one foot in front of the other could cause so much shock to the body, granted a lot of the injuries are from overuse but im just trying to make the point that its scarily easy to injure yourself. phew rant over.

Don't get disheartened - I know that's difficult if you're damaged!

Make sure you give yourself ample time to heal - don't be too eager to get back up and out there if your injury isn't completely healed!

Chin up!

It will get better, honestly. If you keep it up, pushing yourself gently but giving your body time to recover between runs, your legs will gradually get stronger and you'll find it easier and less painful. If you're not used to running, as I wasn't (and still am not) then it is pretty hard on your legs - your whole body weight thumping down on them at every step.

If you're not already, try doing lots of leg stretches - not just after your run, but on rest days too. If you've got sore shins, it's worth doing some shin strengthening exercises too.

I'm fast coming to the conclusion, though, that the only solution is to keep going, pushing yourself gently and resting when your body demands it.

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Plodalong puddy

Could it be you are pushing yourself to hard?

I often feel I can keep going but stick to my schedule so I have time to recover between runs

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<Space reserved for something funny or profound>

Are you following any sort of training plan ? Sounds awful like too much too soon. I only started running just over two years ago, pretty late in life, relatively speaking. Reason was to support a charity event in work, but found I enjoyed it. Anyway, from the start was totally anal in following advice on training schedules, correct running shoes, warm-ups/downs. Might be some luck involved, but I've had virtually no problems injury wise.

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Don

Overuse injuries happen to the majority at some point Dan, so don't think you're alone there! The good thing is that now you've experienced the frustration of injury, you'll be FAR more switched on to the tell tales signs in future and less naive to it (that's not meant as an insult by the way! just that you'll be a lot more clued up).

Just give yourself that extra bit of time to get things completely out the system so as to not risk coming back to training too early, and also be sure to ease yourself back up to your previous training mileage

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www.richardsimkiss.co.uk

Hi Dan

I know exactly how you feel - I had loads of niggly injuries in my first year of running. The best advice I got was to include one easy week per month into your training schedule and to make sure that every training run had a purpose. I tended to do my long weekend runs at the same pace as my shorter mid-week runs, which in retrospect, was really stupid