transition from treadmill to outside??? (Read 773 times)

I love the feeling I get after I run, I'm working on loving the feeling I get when I run. I currently run 10-14 miles a week. I do 5 miles on Monday, 5 on Thursday and then a couple on the weekend. The 5 on Monday and Thursday are on a treadmill (which I actually love) the weekend run is outside. Last year I was running 30 plus miles a week, all on a treadmill. Then my DH took a position that involved a lot of travel, so the kid and I would go with him. Well, when we were not at home I did all my runs outside, which I loved. But....developed a stress fracture because of it. (or at least that was the reason I was told it developed) So how do I transition myself into running outside. I ideally would like to do 3 runs a week. 2 being outside. ????????????????????? Thanks, I'm just a little timid.

The stress fracture happen in April of 2007 after running 30 miles weekly on a treadmill to jumping outside to do 30 miles on the pavement. I was in a walking cast for about 6 weeks. NOW, I only do 10-14 miles on a treadmill and wanted to move to outside running mostly, but was timid because the doctor and a lot of what I read said it was from making the switch. I didnt' know what kind of adjustments to make so I don't get another stress fracture. Oh, I take now and also then 1400mg of Calcium daily and I'm 27.

It was my 5th metatarsal (sp) and was clearly visable (even by me) in an x-ray.

He called it a stress fracture. I'm actually going back to the same doc tomorrow because I'm feeling pain very similiar to what it felt like then. When he showedme the x-ray I could see a very small crack and also what looked like little bits of white dust around it. He said that was part of the bone building back??????? Does that make sense. It could have been the shoes I guess. They had less than 300 miles on them and the doc said they were the right size. But the closest running store to me is 4 hours away so I've never been fitted like that....I have no idea about arch,pronation, etc.... I was wearing nike shox.... Now I'm getting paranoid....When it started happening I had some pain about two weeks before and continued running awkardly just because I didn't want to stop. Are you more likely to get another in the same place if you've already had one?

A conservative aproach would be to half the miles...so if your run is 5 miles on the treadmill, start by doing 2.5 outside - you can still make up the other mileage on the treadmill if you are worried about losing fitness. What worked for me was following the half rule and doing every other run outside, gradually increasing the outside distance. If you can get to an outdoor track, or dirt path, those would also be softer surfaces to do some of your outdoor runs on as well, until you feel comfortable with running on pavement. Good luck