[Portland Bill]

...Kristian and I live in Northumberland.

I've been out of training for the last few months now after getting shinsplints (AGAIN!) and acquiring a nasty sprained ankle whilst running on the beach.

I'm not going to go into my history too much as that's my main reason for joining the forum for help and advice.

I'm desperate to get into running and keep it up but I keep getting injured and I'm looking for a way through.

Hopefully you guys are the ones to help...

Cheers,

K

 

[bigcog]

Hi and welcome, just joined in last few weeks and a friendly helpful bunch on here. Shin splints are nasty things, I had them once over 20 years ago really bad and had to walk with a walking stick for a bit, they need do heal up with sufficient rest. Gotta listen to you body I guess as hard as it may be sometimes, when you want to get out there.

Also good to see another Northerner!

 

[beasty1711]

hi and welcome
a quite common cause is a rapid increase in milage.

what sort of distance are you running now compared to when you first started?

 

[Owain]

Welcome to the forum....I used to love the Portland Bill program

As Beasty said, a common cause of injury is increasing your distance to quickly and not letting your body recover from each run. Start of slowly and build up and listen to your body. If you feel physically tired and your body aches, have a rest but be sure to go out as soon as you feel ready otherwise you can get in to a rut and just stop running.

What sort of running have you been doing i.e. running / walking for a set distance or managing to run constant for a certain amount of time....

O.

 

[richardsimkiss]

Welcome to the forum Kristian!

Hope you don't mind me asking the obvious question... have you had a gait analysis done when buying your trainers? I suffered with shin-splints when I first started out, turned out to be a case of having the wrong shoes! One gait analysis (and a bit of rest) later, all was hunky dorey! :d

 

[Portland Bill]

Sorry guys, I started a new thread...

I tried to post the link but coz I'm a newbie it won't let me. The full explanation is in the Health and Injury area.

 

[The Nude Monk]

As a rough guide, what sort of increase should people be looking at? I started running three weeks ago, doing a 2.5 mile route in about 20 minutes. This week I've started doing 2.8 miles, which adds an extra couple of minutes on. I'm fairly comfortable with the step up - should I look to be going a little further, or should I persevere with 2.8 this week then maybe look to go above the 3 mile mark next?

I've started running to lose weight, I'm about 20 stone and whilst I'm not in a hurry to shape up, I don't want to get complacent hence me being keen to increase distance. I'm also worried about picking up shin splints and such like - I'm running on road/pavement so it's a hard surface and although I'm not in any pain whilst running, my legs sometimes ache for a couple of minutes afterwards then again briefly later in the day.

 

[richardsimkiss]

Whilst there's no guaranteed amount by which you can increase mileage without risking injury, many people use 'the 10% rule' as a guide.

Basically a fair amount to increase your total weekly mileage by is 10% without increasing your risk of injury too much. Some people will find they can manage much more than this, some people will struggle to adapt to a 5% increase every fortnight!

From your point of view, I'm suggest not increasing too quickly, since it's easy for the muscles to develop faster than the joints and supporting ligaments/tendons, added to the extra weight makes you a little more susceptable to picking up an injury.

Stick at it though and I'm sure you'll see great gains, what you've achieved already sounds fantastic!

 

[deano1]

Welcome to the forum Kristian.....echoes all the sound advice above...and can back up the freindly bunch of very informative guys n girls on this site...I was a newbie (and still am I suppose)..Started running around 4 - 5 weeks ago...found this site and am now hooked to the site and running... I can back up about listening to your body and definatley back up the fact about the right running shoes...Good luck in your quest and keep it going