Forums >Running 101>New Runner/Pain
Hi I'm Josh and I am new
I have always been a semi-athletic person but never a big runner. Play softball at work (not very strenuous) and lifted on and off for the last 8 years (26yo). Recently, I decided to start running with a friend. She runs a few halves and one full marathon a year. On a whim I bought a pair of Brooks one day. I did NOT get fitted for them. I saw the Couch to 5k thing and thought I would start there. 2 weeks into it I started to have some pain. It was not shin splints but a tightness just above the outside of my legs, above the ankle. It was almost disabling. I could barely walk if I continued for too long on it. I took a few weeks off. I was only completing about 2 miles a day. I go up to visit my friend who happened to have a long run on that Saturday. I was bored so I decided to run as well. I managed about 4 miles and I was really hurting at the end. Same thing. I decided that I would wait on the running thing and go to a specialty shop she goes to (Run-in) to get fitted. According to them, I overpronate. So they make me try on a few shoes and they tell me which pair I should get. WOW, huge difference. The same day I bought them I managed 8 miles total. I was a bit sore the next day but nothing abnormal to a workout. That was 4 days ago. I start my normal routine back today, shooting for 3 miles. I get about half way through one and that same pain, only on the left side, is back again. I do not understand. I am wearing the same shoes that were so much better. The only thing different is, I walked about 1.5-2 miles in the "other shoes" a few days before because they are much more casual and even noticed a tiny bit of discomfort then. Are those shoes that bad? Should I just rest a few more days and stay the hell away from those shoes?
TL;DR: I wore shoes that were a poor fit for my stride type, just for walking for a few miles, can that still cause discomfort a few days later in the right pair of shoes after a half mile?
some call me Tim
Take what I say with a grain of salt - it's not like I have tons of experience with this. Though I suppose it's possible your shoes are causing you problems, with so few miles being run I would say it's unlikely to be the culprit. What it could be is hard to say with so many unknowns. Maybe you pushed the limits of the program, maybe you always go out too fast, maybe your form could use work, maybe it's the surface you're running on... and *maybe* you have some kind of preexisting problem that you could talk to a doc or PT about. You'll have to do some digging and see what makes the most sense. Just saying that, in my less than expansive experience, people often think it's the shoes - and it seldom actually is.
ME WEBLARG
If I understand your post correctly, you did a couple weeks of c25k, took a couple weeks off, then ran 4 miles..then ran 8! That's the problem. Please correct me if I'm misunderstanding the sequence of events there. Running is something that you need to ease into gradually. I would recommend completing the entire c25k program, or simply executing a walk/jog (key word being jog, not run) method until you start to feel very comfortable jogging about 3 miles.