Running - Trying to Improve but Frustrated

AsrarHussain wrote: »

The reason I said mid feet striking because its q common problem I had problems with. If he tries mid feet striking and feels better what's the harm then

Because its like burning your house down to fix a leaky pipe

parfia wrote: »

BrianSharpe wrote: »

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by a "dodgy knee" when running outside. Have you actually had some sort of medical diagnosis or is this, perhaps, a glute and/or hip weakness issue that can be addressed through exercise?

This may help (I hope).....

runnersworld.com/newswire/to-relieve-runners-knee-strengthen-your-hips

You don't say how long you've been running for but I'll echo the comment that running longer slower distances may help (you need to build your aerobic base first). I once had a wise triathlon coach tell me not to worry about running a fast 5K until I could run a slow 10K.

Once you've built your aerobic base then you can add in speed work (intervals, hills) which can be done on a treadmill by varying speed & incline (some treadmills will have built in programs).

It's discouraging to some athletes that bike fitness, swimming fitness etc don't translate into running fitness, it comes down to specificity....to be a better runner you need to run more.

When I ran my first 5K my only goal was to come in under 40 min (and I barely squeaked under that) since then I've come within seconds of busting 25:00 and have gone on to run half-marathon and Olympic distance duathlons.....it takes time, consistency and patience. Keep at it!

@BrianSharpe - I will have a look at this. I have always had a slightly in-turned left foot which really affects my gait when I run outside on an uneven surface and I found that after a few weeks of running outside every other day, my knee was really giving me a lot of pain. Nothing diagnosed medically, just stopped running for a while and it improved but I find that if I try to run outside, the pain reappears after a few runs. I know that the quick fix would be to get a super duper expensive pair of running shoes to improve gait etc, but I'm poor!! haha!!

Actually the fix most likely is to resolve the underlying glute/hip weakness that has been mentioned. You will drive yourself nuts (and to the poorhouse) trying to find the "ideal" pair of shoes that are a crutch for the real issue.

Best of luck.

litsy3 wrote: »

The easiest and least risky way of improving at running when you are a relative beginner is just to run further, but slowly. If you get used to doing longer runs, and gradually increase the frequency, you'll find you automatically get faster at 5k without even trying.

BrianSharpe wrote: »

You don't say how long you've been running for but I'll echo the comment that running longer slower distances may help (you need to build your aerobic base first). I once had a wise triathlon coach tell me not to worry about running a fast 5K until I could run a slow 10K.

Once you've built your aerobic base then you can add in speed work (intervals, hills) which can be done on a treadmill by varying speed & incline (some treadmills will have built in programs).

It's discouraging to some athletes that bike fitness, swimming fitness etc don't translate into running fitness, it comes down to specificity....to be a better runner you need to run more.

When I ran my first 5K my only goal was to come in under 40 min (and I barely squeaked under that) since then I've come within seconds of busting 25:00 and have gone on to run half-marathon and Olympic distance duathlons.....it takes time, consistency and patience. Keep at it!

ThickMcRunFast wrote: »

Anyway, try the usual suspects first. Get good shoes that are right for you. Build up slowly and consistently. Do not try speed work until you have been running regularly for a number of months (you won't get many gains from it anyway - you need to build up your musculature and cardio system to handle the load first).

omma_to_3 wrote: »

I didn't read all the responses, but yes, you ABSOLUTELY will improve by continuing to do just what you're doing. There is room for a lot of improvement for all new runners. I would say my race pace continued to improve for more than a year when I started running, JUST by running more at the same slow pace. Don't increase distance more than 10% per week, but sticking with your comfortable pace is just fine. Two years in, you would need to start looking at speed work, etc. to get faster, but not yet.

You've already gotten a lot of people giving you good advice so I'll just highlight the ones who know what they are talking about. I'm guessing you are a new runner. What you are doing right now is called "building a base". What you want to be able to do, is continue running X times a week without injury. Someone said 80% of your runs should be easy? I'd say 100% of your runs right now should be easy. What you want to do now is build up mileage. So you can run 3 miles 5 days a week. Like others have said, start slowly increasing total weekly mileage by about 10% a week (and maybe have a cut back week, you don't always have to increase week after week after week). So if you are running 3x6 = 18 miles now, adding 1.8 miles would be 'safe' for next week. Maybe make 3 of your runs 3.5 miles and keep the other 3 at 3. Eventually you want a spread of shorter runs (2 or 3 miles) and a longer run (6-9 miles). Do NOT worry about speed. Just focus on effort. Look up the 'talk test' for running, that's a great way to know how fast you should be running.

As you lose weight, you will get faster. As you keep logging miles, you will get faster. I wouldn't do any speed work until you are so bored that you can't help it. For comparison, I am lighter than you and running 2.5 miles in about 40 minutes right now. So don't feel bad. Build your base. Also, you are now a runner! So poke around on sites like Runners World. You'll see a lot of the things being said here said over there too. Build your knowledge base while you are building your running base. And great job and keep at it.

Just to throw my 2 cents in there:
More slow miles. You've got lots of room to improve, and almost all that improvement will come from 2 places: less mass and more miles.
Don't do any speedwork, unless you want an injury.
If your goal is running faster, don't lift either. Any time lifting is worthless on getting you faster, you'd be better off running more.
Going to the doctor and having your legs checked out would be a very good step too! Orthopedics or physical therapy might be the cure.

I'm taller, older, lighter, and more male than you, but just with slow-to-me miles and no speedwork or weights, I'm consistently doing 20:30 5ks.

You are currently only running two days a week, which is enough to maintain your current level of running fitness. To improve you need to run 3 or 4 days a week. One of your runs should evolve into a long run (ex. 3 days/wk 5k & 1 day/wk 10k). Having the aerobic capacity to run longer distances means that you should be able to run a short distance faster. You might need to drop some of your other workouts that are leg killers, like HIIT & spinning, to avoid overtaxing your legs. After a couple months you might be able to work these back into your training rotation.

You should continue lifting weights to maintain your current muscle mass while losing weight and to gain strength. My personal experience is that my form & efficiency improved after I started doing Strong Lifts.

As far as your knee/foot issue, you should see a podiatrist. Since you obviously have some kind of bio-mechanical issue it would be better to have a professional with years of training and experience diagnose it and provide recommendations, than some college kid working at a shoe store that might have watched a video on gait analysis. If you do go see a podiatrist then you want to make sure that he performs a gait analysis and that you discuss physical therapy exercises, what type of shoes you should use (neutral, support, motion control), and if you would need orthotics (custom or over-the-counter).

The cost of support and motion control shoes can be significantly higher than neutral shoes, so you want to determine if they are need before sinking the extra money into them. The other problem is that if you don't require the extra support, then it can do more harm than good.

In the short term pay attention to how you run and how your feet land. Are your feet landing like sledge hammers, are your knees straight (nearly locked), do you tend to bounce/hop a lot with each step? These are all things that can increase the impact force of each step you take while running. When you run on a treadmill some of the impact is being absorbed by the treadmill, which would lessen the effect on your knees. When you run outside you might try to run on the softest surface available. Your preference order should be firm ground, gravel, asphalt, and concrete as a last resort. Sand and soft ground should be avoided because they can cause other problems.

People have it pretty well covered. Gradual increase in mileage, once you get to where you are running 4-5 times a week for 30-60 mins then you're in a good position to start looking into more focused training and incorporating some faster work including threshold runs/VO2 work/race pace work.

Your runs right now should not be hard. They should be almost easy enough it feels like you are cheating and aren't getting a workout. Maybe not quite that easy, but definitely wayyy closer to that than "this is tough".

I do recommend after some runs doing short pickups, called strides, that last for about 15-20s and are done at a good pace, in your case probably between 13-16 km/hr. Shouldn't quite be sprinting, but it should be pretty dang fast. If it gets hard to finish after 15s...you're going a little too fast. Walk for 2 minutes or so between each. Purpose of these is just to teach the body how to run faster and develop efficient form running faster without stressing your body with 'hard' running.

The other thing that is good to do is on days you're feeling really good, start to push the pace down the last 5 minutes, you can get really cranking in the last 2-3 minutes, as long as you don't go so hard you're rigging up. In your case, this would probably mean working from 7kph -> 10kph, and then in the last minute or two maybe even getting into the 11-12 kph range.

As far as 5k time goes, just getting down to something like 170lbs will have you running 5k in around 25 minutes, and with good training that will improve. You've already got some okay fitness, the weight just blocks that from showing through when it comes to running.