Sprinting is so much better,

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rileyes
rileyes Posts: 1,404 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
All you MFPers have made me want to run. And I suck at it! But, I'm learning. And, I am finding, jogging at a slow pace seems more painful on the shins than sprinting (treadmill or street). Am I right? What is your experience?
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  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    If your body isn't prepared to run slowly, you're just asking for injury by trying to sprint.

    It's only a matter of time...
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    No shin pain here. I did get a side stitch the other day, but I powered through it until the end of my workout. I'm getting ready to start week 6 of Zombies,Run!5k (after repeating week 5).

    My husband who doesn't run on a regular basis or do any C25K program like I do, did walk one lap/run 2 laps around the gym track for the equivalent of 3 miles a week or so ago and he had pretty bad shin pain after. I think he attempted to much to fast, but that's just my opinion.
  • GiddyupTim
    GiddyupTim Posts: 2,819 Member
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    I think that might be right. One thing elite runners try to do is to glide over the ground -- that is, to stay light on their feet. When you jog slowly, you thud and plop. Every step is a hard step onto the ground. It is much easier to skim when you are going fast. Your feet reach out when you are going fast, and then they grab the earth and push it behind without really landing...at least, not so much.
  • rainbowbow
    rainbowbow Posts: 7,490 Member
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    shadow2soul wrote: »
    No shin pain here. I did get a side stitch the other day, but I powered through it until the end of my workout.

    is this where you feel like you've been stabbed in your stomach/chest on one side when running? Because i have this everytime and i just cant handle it.
  • rileyes
    rileyes Posts: 1,404 Member
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    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    If your body isn't prepared to run slowly, you're just asking for injury by trying to sprint.

    It's only a matter of time...

    Yeah. I don't want injuries. I am trying to stay aware of my form. I stay conditioned in other strength and cardio exercises. I learned that jogging slow (5.2) with quick and short strides relieved pressure on my shins. Then I bounced from 5.4 to 7(sprint for me) and found I could run with a natural stride with no pain. I was fitted with new shoes and that helped too.
  • rileyes
    rileyes Posts: 1,404 Member
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    tufel wrote: »
    I think that might be right. One thing elite runners try to do is to glide over the ground -- that is, to stay light on their feet. When you jog slowly, you thud and plop. Every step is a hard step onto the ground. It is much easier to skim when you are going fast. Your feet reach out when you are going fast, and then they grab the earth and push it behind without really landing...at least, not so much.

    That is what I was thinking!
  • WhatMeRunning
    WhatMeRunning Posts: 3,538 Member
    edited April 2015
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    It's simple physics. You propel yourself forward faster with your feet when sprinting by expending greater energy. Thus when sprinting you are impacting your musculoskelatal system harder than jogging. There is no way around this. Anyone who thuds and plops simply has bad form and needs to learn how to run.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
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    Unless you have some sort of underlying issue with your shins, the fact that they hurt more jogging slowly than sprinting is odd. Unless it's how you're running or your shoes, perhaps. I don't have shin pain when doing either one.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    rainbowbow wrote: »
    shadow2soul wrote: »
    No shin pain here. I did get a side stitch the other day, but I powered through it until the end of my workout.

    is this where you feel like you've been stabbed in your stomach/chest on one side when running? Because i have this everytime and i just cant handle it.

    Yep that's it. It sucks.
  • rileyes
    rileyes Posts: 1,404 Member
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    SueInAz wrote: »
    Unless you have some sort of underlying issue with your shins, the fact that they hurt more jogging slowly than sprinting is odd. Unless it's how you're running or your shoes, perhaps. I don't have shin pain when doing either one.

    I don't experience any pain with quick and short strides at a slow jog or a natural stride in a sprint. It just feels uncomfortable when I try to jog slow with a natural stride.
  • WhatMeRunning
    WhatMeRunning Posts: 3,538 Member
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    The problem could be your stride is too long when you are doing what you call a "natural stride". Too long of a stride can cause shin splints. Here is some info that may help.
    http://runnersconnect.net/running-injury-prevention/the-ultimate-guide-to-shin-splints-for-runners/
  • GiddyupTim
    GiddyupTim Posts: 2,819 Member
    edited April 2015
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    grimmeanor wrote: »
    It's simple physics. You propel yourself forward faster with your feet when sprinting by expending greater energy. Thus when sprinting you are impacting your musculoskelatal system harder than jogging. There is no way around this. Anyone who thuds and plops simply has bad form and needs to learn how to run.

    Try it. Then get back to us.
    Watch an elite sprinter. They stay up on their toes and throw the ground behind them.
    Watch a slow jogger. They land on their heals or midfoot and every step brings them to a stop.
    Oh yeah, and remember physics. Maybe Newton's second law. There is a vector here -- and momentum -- when you are moving forward.
  • WhatMeRunning
    WhatMeRunning Posts: 3,538 Member
    edited April 2015
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    tufel wrote: »
    Watch a slow jogger. They land on their heals or midfoot and every step brings them to a stop.
    That is bad form, right there.

    ETA: Landing on heels like that is a sure sign of "overstriding", which as mentioned is a cause for shin splints as this causes you to have to "pull" your leg back to your body to get it under you to push forward. This causes your tibia to bow on that "pull". It is a completely unnecessary stress and counterproductive to energy expenditure when running. You are running worse, and increasing your chance of injury.
  • GiddyupTim
    GiddyupTim Posts: 2,819 Member
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    Actually, it is a pretty natural thing to do. A guy who was slowly jogging down the road, and prancing on his little tippy toes, would be fairly unusual and look pretty ridiculous, as proper as it might be.
    Some joggers are forefoot strikers. Some are mid-foot or heal strikers. You could tell them they are wrong, but that is natural for them. They have tried to teach such people to get up on the balls of their feet and found that they cannot really be taught.
    You can say people are doing it wrong. But that is the way many people do it.
    Most do not when they sprint, however.
  • WhatMeRunning
    WhatMeRunning Posts: 3,538 Member
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    Oh, there is no argument from me that people do this. Some people do run with bad form, and as you mention, are well aware of it. But to say that "jogging" is the problem is incorrect. It's improper form that is the root cause of the strain on the shins to a new runner who is running in such a manner.
  • rileyes
    rileyes Posts: 1,404 Member
    edited April 2015
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    I think the article @grimmeanor posted mentioned a new runner's need to build up slowly to strengthen the tibia. So it just may be inexperience. But there are some funky joggers out there! Hopefully I'm not one!

    I also read a short and quick cadence alleviates pressure which coincides with the sprinting cadence. That seems to work for me. (Okay. I just may be one of those funky runners
  • rileyes
    rileyes Posts: 1,404 Member
    edited April 2015
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    Sorry if there are duplicates my MFP is acting up! My text isn't showing up.
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
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    grimmeanor wrote: »
    Oh, there is no argument from me that people do this. Some people do run with bad form, and as you mention, are well aware of it. But to say that "jogging" is the problem is incorrect. It's improper form that is the root cause of the strain on the shins to a new runner who is running in such a manner.

    nods.

    I switched to a minimalist show to become less of a hell striker- and yes- I get judged for running on my tipie toes.
    But no- I have no shin issues.
  • HelloDan
    HelloDan Posts: 712 Member
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    grimmeanor wrote: »
    Oh, there is no argument from me that people do this. Some people do run with bad form, and as you mention, are well aware of it. But to say that "jogging" is the problem is incorrect. It's improper form that is the root cause of the strain on the shins to a new runner who is running in such a manner.

    Not that I completely disagree, but in my personal experience (I'm a sprinter, I'm scared to go more than 200m at a time, but I do do the odd 5km ;) ) there is a point where the pace is awkward, too fast to walk, too slow to run smoothly, and at this point people tend to thud a lot. The easy answer is to say go faster (assuming you don't want to walk), but if you don't have the cardiovascular capability to do this, you're going to struggle if you want to maintain a constant pace. If you're happy to mix it up with intervals or similar, than it's not so bad.

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