Muscle soreness

This might not be it, but for awhile I could not even walk on the treadmill for more then a few with out geting terrible soreness in my legs. Now that I drink a ton of water they are gone. Totally gone I can go forever and my legs are pain free. Water is the key to my problem.

I have had the same problem, and I too run 10ks 5 days a week

my problem was lack of potassium! might wanna check it out :]

Also... don't increase mileage more than 10% a week....

Hey Fitness Pals! I have been hitting it hard trying to preare for a mini-marathon, even though I won't be able to compete in one until the fall. I want to be in shape by April... anyway, I was up to doing 5.5-6 miles a day, really hitting my stride; and then in the past week, my muscles have been extremely sore. I get through 2 miles and can barely go further. I stop and stretch and may get to three, but no more. I have taken a couple days off, but I went today and only did 2 miles and it was painful. The muscle soreness is in my calves and back. Any suggestions on why all of the sudden and what I can do to ease this so I can get back to daily 10 K's instead of 5 K's?

Thanks! Happy Valentine's Day! :flowerforyou:

I agree with previous posts.
#1 -increase your water - a lot.
#2- I would review your diet over the same time frame and maybe even a week prior to the onset of soreness. See if your protein intake is up or down or if carbs or fats have changed over your normal (non pain run times). You could have an allergy to something you ate recently which is causing a somewhat toxic response in your muscles (holding on to lactic acid). Wikipedia has a great bit of info on the subject including a section devoted to how it's created and used in exercise. The beginning is a bit technical but the exercise section was very informative. I remember the kids show Magic School Bus even did an episode on the subject one time when the kids were competing in some track & field event and they went yohow the acid is created and removed and why we get cramps and soreness. I'm not sure if it's available online but you might be able to get a simplified version of the process if you can find it.
#3-If you're still having problems it could be potassium and or magnesium or manganese (I get them mixed up). Your doctor would know and would be able to test your levels to see if that's the problem. You might just want to opt for a full vitamin/mineral lab and adjust from there. They could even test your lactic acid levels before and after exercise to see if maybe they're spiking for some reason.

Water is above all the easiest to try first. In the meantime, I wouldn't push yourself beyond what your body is telling you to do or you could end up doing more harm than good.

Do yourself a favor and don't use "thirst" as a measure of how much water you need. Your body is well on it's way to dehydration by the time your brain tells you that you are thirsty.

yeah you shouldnt really need to run that far everyday. even for a mini marathon.

most kenyan's dont do it
they wont tell you they dont, but they dont.

some run intervals on most training days. 800m. rest, 800m, rest. they might do a ahndful of these instead of running 5k, or 20k, or whatever. but they'll run these much harder than they would a longer run.

i'm no distance runner. does me no good...i only ususally run intervals. and ususally no more than 400m. I might run 5 or 6 of these on running days.

I set a personal record last week on my 3.2k trial by over 1 minute by training using only intervals for about a month. I never ran a good distance in that time....