runners...advice please

ejwme

I haven't experienced pain but I would suggest if you have not done so, visit a running store and get a gait/foot analysis. You may be wearing the run type of shoe. I used to have horrible shin splits until I did this and got the right shoe. I have not experienced shin splints since. Above all else, always listen to your body.

^This.

Shooting pain, in my particular body (YMMV) is indicative of something being out of whack independent of stretching. The "wrong" shoes can take a while to do damage, but once I'm there only a change in shoes fixes it. For me, my hips are the canary in the coal mine - if I have any pain at all in my hips, I take a serious look at my shoes, socks, and running surface. If you're running on suburban roads, change sides often (the camber/slope can cause leg, hip, back, and neck pain). If you're on a treadmill, make sure you're ok with the incline and it's on a flat surface (once saw a treadmill set up over a seam in concrete, kid you not it was tilted to one side ever so slightly!).

I'd definitely go to a running store and get your gait and shoe combo checked out by a runner - someone at footlocker once sold me "stability runners" for people who pronate (roll their feet) because I was running on uneven terrain - I didn't know any better, and it almost cost me my knees. A web search of "pronation" will give you pointers to look at your own shoe wear and help you try to figure it out if there's no running store nearby.

medaglia_06

I've read that in the first year of running, nobody should attempt to do a 5k of strict running. A maximum of 7 min running, three minutes walking is recommended on many sites I've been to.

But the Couch 2 5K program is done in 9 weeks??

arc918

Static stretch ONLY when warmed up. I often will run a couple miles, then stop and stretch on a park bench or brick wall or something. When I finish, I always stretch.