Question for those with experience

Jdoster06

I want to do a Monday Wednesday Friday thing for this, but I really feel like running today. I'm in week two and wanted to kind of just run today and see what happened. Is it ok to just run as far as possible on an off day?

pmur

Go for a walk instead. I know it is hard to not run when you really want to but it's best to stay injury free and complete the program. Maybe tomorrow, you can run longer than the stipulated time after your walking warm up and see how long you can do it.
You can do it two consecutive days but why risk the chance of any injury. As the program suggests, try and do some cross training today.

Jdoster06

I never saw that it said cross training in the program. And I already ran by the time u said your reply. Tried mapping out the exact 5k route near my house. Other than injury, there isn't anything to worry about( since I finished injury free)

PaytraB

It's easy to get over-enthusiastic at first. I agree with pmur and suggest you stick with the program and run 3x a week with rest days in between. You can cross-train and walk on your non-running days. Give your body and muscles a chance to get used to this activity.

Jdoster06

Thanks guys. I will follow your advice in the future! I'll use the off days to work on the jump shot lol

CarlaMomOf4

You could always try biking on your off days, that way you are still using your legs and faking the feeling like you are running. Plus it uses the leg muscles differently so it benefits you in the end. Just a thought!! :happy:

MeanderingMammal

since I finished injury free

It's not a question of spontaneously injuring yourself because you ran on an off day, but progressive damage around the joints and in the muscle as you're not giving it time to recover. that said, in the first four weeks or so there isn't a huge load so recovery time is quite short.

Most common running injuries are a result of doing too much, too soon or too quickly. You don't know aobut it until it's too late to really do anything about it.

More immediate injuries, like ligament injury or muscle tears, are more liely to be as a result of some form of trauma event; falling, sliding or similar.

As a new runner I owuld suggest taking the off days but do something else. As you develop more experience, and more importantly you condition yourself to running longer, you can increase your days. Recently when training for 10K time I was on five days per week, at the moment I'm on four runs per week in half marathon training.