Running/Jogging Advice Required

[Galaika]

I've been running after 10pm, I sweat like a bitch and the added chill helps a lot, plus it helps me sleep like a baby :D

Yeah Tyche, I've been running an sidewalks mostly, should I switch to the streets if I can? Treadmill/dirt isn't really doable, I have neither near me and no cash to spend on going to a gym.

Had nipple trouble once, when it was colder, not that much since.

[Jefe]

Regarding temperatures, it depends where you live. Here in California the last couple of years I had to wake up around 4am during summer. However, the temperature hasn't been that bad and jogging around 6am ain't bad. According to my xls sheet the tem. has been lower by a few~

I also run on pavement because I don't wanna get run over, too many godamn stupid people on the streets. Get your hands on shoes that offer plenty of protection. Alas, you're better off running on asphalt, grass, etc.

No nipplage problem here and I jog between 9-13 miles. <_<

[Tyche]

nipple problems are generally related to wearing cotton shirts. Don't wear cotton.

[Ashira]

Clearly someone here needs to invent a men's sports bra for the nipple issues.

[Galaika]

Clearly someone here needs to invent a men's sports bra for the nipple issues.

If not for support. I'll admit it, I have a bit of man-boobage going on and that shit gets uncomfortable after a while. Ever so slightly envious of my girlfriend and her sports bra.

[Hushigoshi]

I agree, the best running shoes!

I am nowhere near your height (I'm 5'9), but I usually run around 3-6 miles on my workouts... and I have had an aching in my legs after workouts (I ran XC in high school and now I'm just trying to continue with keeping my muscle haha) if you were fine the next day, there really shouldn't be a problem. Push yourself, but don't push TOO hard, especially since you're just moving from above the 3 mile range... it is definitely a wall that a lot of people hit (I remember when I ran my first 5k.. a lot of my teammates and I had an incredibly hard time) and once you get through that you'll be fine =) and good job for keeping with your routine!

Shut up Phlankx NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOU.

ontopic:

If your ankles ache near the end of the run, it can be a couple of things. First thing that comes to mind is if you overpronate or underpronate your strides while you run/jog. Have you had someone check to see if you pronate while you run? Also, it might be simply due to weak ankles, or your ankles not use to that kind of stress (distance).

[Galaika]

I slightly over-pronate, the shoes I got are supposed to take this into account.

[thepurplemage]

Also, this post is mad crazy. Ignore it.

Wow, I'm just here to help and share what I've learned from my coaches. Can you please elaborate on what is crazy about my advice? You seem to have many hidden arguments behind your post, would you be kind to share them or not say anything? I was just here to give my advice, compared to you.
This guy seems to need advice and his problem can be of any nature (It can be related to bones problems, bad running shoes, etc, nobody knows). All I suggested him is to check the intensity of his training and make sure that every training his body is completely rested. My second and final advice was what we call "talk test" and it's supposed to be known for every jogger. If you are breathless when you talk you'r going is too intense. When you are jogging you want to increase your aerobic systhem. That means you should focus on long distances and slow intensity. What is "mad crazy" about that?

[Tyche]

Anyone who says that 4-5 days of jogging is useless and can deteriorate your endurance is mad crazy.

[thepurplemage]

Anyone who says that 4-5 days of jogging is useless and can deteriorate your endurance is mad crazy.

Ah, you misunderstood me, my friend. Jogging 4-5 days is useless IF you do not have time to recover, is what I was trying to explain. He said that he "started out" jogging with a 4-5 times a week, which is kind of very intense for someone that starts out a training routine, but that's ok if he can keep it up like that. So if you train 5 times a week, it's good for you, if you can rest completely the 2 days off. However if you can't rest on those 2 days break before your next training routine, you will not see any results from your last training. It's then useless, unless you take a break to rest completely. By "deteriorate" I meant "hurting", "physical fatigue" (When you are jogging/running, it's not only a cardiovascular exercise, it's also a muscular endurance exercise. Which means, you may have a good cardio, but if you train too much with no resting, you will not be able to run the same distance you used to do, simply because you are tired physically. That was the logic behind the "deterioration of your endurance", because in jogging we are talking about two things: cardio endurance AND muscular endurance).

If the volume or the intensity of the training is such that it causes a too important disturbances of your systems and certain functions, or if the duration of the recovery period after a training is insufficient to restore at least your system and his functions to its initial level before the next training session, your organism will deteriorate training after training and cease to answer adequately to the stimulus of the training; and it's capacities to be adjusted with the effort decrease instead of improving. That is the basics in sport and I'm sure you know that.

That's what I was trying to explain. Now I guess the question that should be asked to Galaika is if he's able to rest on those 2-3 days break?

[thepurplemage]

Anyway Galaika, I may have found what you were searching.

What you have may be called Ankle sprains and it's caused by exactly what I've said: overtraining with less resting. I think you should see your doctor, like someone proposed it to you here. Good luck and chow!.

Ankle sprains
Cause: these small fractures occur due to excessive stress (overuse of the bone) or an increase in intensity or distance running, resulting in gradual breakdown of the bone. Running on level ground rarely results in an ankle sprain but cross country running, trail running and stepping into a pot hole all could potentially lead to an ankle sprain.

[Tyche]

Can you overtrain on 4-5 days a week of running? Yes, of course you can. You can also continue to run four to 5 days a week and not overtrain. It isn't an issue of how many days you run, it's an issue of intensity. You have to scale recovery periods and recovery runs. You don't want to run 8 miles (if that's your "long" run), then follow up with a tempo the next day, and then follow up with track workouts the next. You have to separate the key workouts with easy jogging/recovery running.

As far as the whole "talk test", if you can talk during tempo training or v02 training, then you aren't doing it right. I don't know about you, but I can't talk during 8x800s or 8miles @ HMP.

As far as the ankle issues, I doubt it's a shoe or mechanical issues. You went to a shoes store, they watched you run, so I trust they took care of those issues there. That seems to be the longest run you've done...it hurt for a day and went away. I wouldn't make too much out of it. It wasn't the achilles was it? Probably just a bit of inflammation.

[Tyche]

Wow, you edit posts like a boss.

[thepurplemage]

Can you overtrain on 4-5 days a week of running? Yes, of course you can. You can also continue to run four to 5 days a week and not overtrain. It isn't an issue of how many days you run, it's an issue of intensity. You have to scale recovery periods and recovery runs. You don't want to run 8 miles (if that's your "long" run), then follow up with a tempo the next day, and then follow up with track workouts the next. You have to separate the key workouts with easy jogging/recovery running.

As far as the whole "talk test", if you can talk during tempo training or v02 training, then you aren't doing it right. I don't know about you, but I can't talk during 8x800s or 8miles @ HMP.

As far as the ankle issues, I doubt it's a shoe or mechanical issues. You went to a shoes store, they watched you run, so I trust they took care of those issues there. That seems to be the longest run you've done...it hurt for a day and went away. I wouldn't make too much out of it. It wasn't the achilles was it? Probably just a bit of inflammation.

Humm I think I was not clear enough. The "talk test" is for the jogging...(So I don't know why you bring your things about tempo)
If you cannot talk while you are jogging, then you are not jogging but running. And so you are not doing an aerobic exercise. The "talk test" is kind of known by joggers.

Finally, I was not here to debate about "if it's POSSIBLE for someone to train can 4-5 days a week." If you can do it no problem. My point was: you need to be able to recover completely for it to be beneficial, during your breaks. That is all.
So no matter your volume of training or the intensity, it's not important. It's the recovery I was talking about. I was not here to argue about it anyway. Just here to share what I think his problem could be. My point was that it could be due to a lack of resting. Maybe I'm wrong.

Also as a SPORT MOD, it's funny that you do not know what means an endurance deterioration during overtraining? Just type on google: overtraining deterioration.
There are plenty of articles about it.
You seems to be surprised that someones endurance can deteriorate if he trains too much? Yes it's possible. Chow.

[Tyche]

Differentiate "running" and "jogging". My jog pace is race pace for a lot of people. It's the same mechanics, the same rules apply. The OP is wanting to run a half marathon in October. You ever run a half? You ever run a half without doing some kind of speed work? You can't just tell the guy that he has to run at a pace where having a conversation is possible, it's not really a good brand of training for a half-marathon. Neither of us can really comment on a good program without knowing more. Hell, you told him he has to reduce his running to two days a week in your first post while admitting that you don't even know if it's an overtraining issue in a later post.

Also, it's almost completely unlikely to be a sprain, since it's in both ankles and subsided in a day.

Lastly, the fact that I'm a sportsmod has nothing to do with why I can comment (with legitimate advice) on running threads.

[Baelorn]

And yes, Nike's are the best.

Bought me a pair of Lunarglide+ and I support this post.

[Saga]

Humm I think I was not clear enough. The "talk test" is for the jogging...(So I don't know why you bring your things about tempo)
If you cannot talk while you are jogging, then you are not jogging but running. And so you are not doing an aerobic exercise. The "talk test" is kind of known by joggers.

Finally, I was not here to debate about "if it's POSSIBLE for someone to train can 4-5 days a week." If you can do it no problem. My point was: you need to be able to recover completely for it to be beneficial, during your breaks. That is all.
So no matter your volume of training or the intensity, it's not important. It's the recovery I was talking about. I was not here to argue about it anyway. Just here to share what I think his problem could be. My point was that it could be due to a lack of resting. Maybe I'm wrong.

Also as a SPORT MOD, it's funny that you do not know what means an endurance deterioration during overtraining? Just type on google: overtraining deterioration.
There are plenty of articles about it.
You seems to be surprised that someones endurance can deteriorate if he trains too much? Yes it's possible. Chow.

I think the issue is that you saw "ankle pain" somewhere in the OP's posts and assumed "endurance deterioration," when really ankle pain can just be soreness from the run, especially considering the OP hasn't done much running prior to his 4-5 day a week runs. I ran two half marathons at the end of last year and, like Tyche, still felt sore and had to stretch out at the end of the race, and even in my training runs on my long run days, still felt sore/stretched out.

Immediately jumping from "oh that's normal soreness associated with increasing your workload as much as you have" to "oh your endurance is deteriorating, quick, cut your exercising in half" is too much too soon.

[Tyche]

I suggested some lunarglide's to someone in another thread who was having some post-surgical pains. He loves them. I run in LunarRacers. Same material, a bit lighter and less support. Best shoe's ever.

[sephir]

My former roommate and I trained for a full marathon and a half marathon for a while last year. We have both finished our marathons and did quite well. I can give you some tips on how to better your fitness, endurance, and speed.

1) Alternate between hard days and easy days (and easy means EASY. Go maybe 1km above walking speed)

2) Do one endurance run every week. Make sure that this run is done at a slower pace, and increase the distance SLOWLY.

3) Make sure you are running with your feet pointing straight, and make sure that you are lifting your legs. (I borrowed a friends treadmill and drew black lines on my calves and recorded me running from behind - it showed I swung my hips when running, which is not good)

4) Buy a Heart Rate Monitor and try to learn your zones. They are like $30 here, and well worth the money.

4b) Learn when you go Anaerobic. When you do run the marathon, having a tool that will tell you how hard you are pushing will help prevent you from actually going to hard to early. Far too many people run too fast, too early simply as a result of the cheering crowd or nerves.

5) Remember the rest days. Take a day or two off after a really hard effort. You build fitness during REST, not when you are exercising.

6) Do core exercises and practice a breathing pattern with your strides.

7) Stretch your brains out after a run. This will promote recovery, muscle growth, and prevent cramps.

[Talus]

Your ankles hurt because they're weak and haven't adapted to the workload, or you're running over uneven ground, and they aren't used to it. When I started running, it was mainly on a treadmill but a couple of times a week I would go outside and the outer sides of my lower legs would be sore from running on trails/uneven paths. If at all possible, stick to the roads, not sidewalks, as other people have mentioned (or tracks if you have access to one).

I'm not 6'5, but I am 6'2, and I think Tyche is a taller runner too. There's not a lot of difference as far as biomechanics with respect to height (we have a higher center of gravity than a 5'9 runner, that's about it... we can still be overpronators, have a neutral gait, supinators, etc). As far as ankles go, there isn't a lot of natural stability on the outer part of the ankles, that's why soreness and sprains are so prevalent. There are some simple exercises you can do to help stabilize your ankles, for instance, one you can do at the computer, spell out the alphabet with your big toe (cursive optional!), and repeat with the other foot. Do it a few times for each foot. Another exercise is crumpling up newspapers with your toes.

You'd be amazed at what your body will adapt to given the proper training, nutrition and rest. Some people run 6-7 days a week with no ill effects and some people only run 2-3 days a week, and everywhere in between. It largely comes down to what you can make time for and what your commitments are between family, work, school, and so on. So you may be doing 2-3 miles a run now and be a little sore the next day, and a few months from now you may crank out an 8-miler and feel perfectly fine the next day. The key part of it is not overdoing it, it's really a cliche, but listen to your body, particularly your ankles since that seems to be your main issue, and adjust your goals/training accordingly.