When can you advance to every day running?

MimiOfTheLusciousLawn

I'm in week 5, and feel I have better runs when I run on consecutive days. When should I increase from every other day to 5 running days per week?

mangrothian

The point of having the days off between your runs is to let your body rest and recover. The strengthening of muscles and ligaments in your body and repairing any damage done during the stress you're putting your body under happens during rest and recovery, which (to state the obvious) is extremely important for your body.

I would suggest that you don't run any more than the 3 days a week that the program suggests until you've completed it. Go for a brisk walk on the off days, but leave the impact running has on your body for your running days only until you've completed the c25k

MimiOfTheLusciousLawn

Bummer. But thanks for responding. I was afraid that would be the case.

taeliesyn

Maybe go up to 4 days a week, once you finish the program.
Get through Bridge to 10K and then run consistently for at least 6 months without injury at a minimum before thinking about 5 days a week. You can do other activities, but please don't get too far ahead of your body.

The reason over use injuries are so common with runners, is it's easy to feel like everything is going fine, until BANG it's not and you're out for 3 weeks, or maybe 6 months depending on the issue. Heck I still don't consider myself an experienced runner (Only been at this for the last 2yrs), but I've had a better no injury run than many, and I've still had nearly 2 months of downtime due to overuse.

ftrobbie

taeliesyn wrote: »

Maybe go up to 4 days a week, once you finish the program.
Get through Bridge to 10K and then run consistently for at least 6 months without injury at a minimum before thinking about 5 days a week. You can do other activities, but please don't get too far ahead of your body.

The reason over use injuries are so common with runners, is it's easy to feel like everything is going fine, until BANG it's not and you're out for 3 weeks, or maybe 6 months depending on the issue. Heck I still don't consider myself an experienced runner (Only been at this for the last 2yrs), but I've had a better no injury run than many, and I've still had nearly 2 months of downtime due to overuse.

QFT

I had been running for 14 months, 7 months of running 20 out of 21 days, before my knee gave out. I went from running 35-50 miles a week to 44 miles in 7 weeks. Take it slow and easy, my personal view is that I pushed my body to hard too soon and suffered as a result. Getting back into the swing of things but running less and cross training more. Have fun and stay healthy.

martazdz

I have only just started and normally run on sat and sunday. On monday my legs are very tired and even though i may feel like running i worry i will injure myself. I have problems with knees so i dont want to push it. I go swimming on some days, maybe try that on other days

BabyLovesToRun

I started running in January and am sticking to my golden rule of run 3 days a week. Off days are important when you're beginning. I pushed myself too hard in March this year, signed up for a 100 mile challenge for the month of March, which had me running a few miles every day, and I blew out my left calf. So instead of running 100 miles in March, I was stuck on the couch for about a month and a half until it healed up.