If you haven’t been able to tell from other blogs of mine, running is kind of my thing! I absolutely love the sport, especially when you put me in some of the most scenic locations in the world to explore, a new city to discover or a race to run with or without obstacles put in my way. If it means putting on my running gear and enjoying the very thing that we as humans are perfectly designed for, I’m definitely in!
It has been during in this journey of discovery, whether it be of myself and my physical limits or of my surroundings, I’ve ended up being asked plenty of questions about running. Some of these come down to the simple question whether or not I actually enjoy this beautiful sport, why do I run and what my goals are. Some other ones a little more technical, whether it be about training regimes or why they are getting injuries in various locations around their body.
So I thought I’d write a blog and address some of the most commonly asked questions I get about running to cover them off, hopefully give you some insight as to my why and most importantly, help and advise you on things that could be hindering your running journey.
Does running hurt your knees?
In all honesty, no!
Well, as long as you’re doing it properly…
If your knees do hurt from running, I feel this is going to be down to one of or a combination of a few different things. First suggestion is your form in which most people do this wrong. Due to the development of running footwear going in a direction that is ultimately wrong for us as humans and our biomechanics, encouraging us to over stride and heel strike, the force that we are subjecting our knees, hips and ankle equates to in the region of 3 times your body weight with each stride. Surely that’s not right for you body? Add into that the fact you’re landing with a straight leg, the muscle groups of your leg are not being used correctly to absorb the impact of each landing. This heavy landing is proven in studies to be worsened by the padding of your shoes, much to advertisements suggesting otherwise!
The recommendation with this one would be to become more mindful when you’re running when it comes to your landing. The desired placement of your foot when you’re running is to land on your midfoot, relaxing the feet and calves to take the impact and then recoil out of the stride. To be able to do this will probably mean you’re going to have to shorten your stride too.
The second part of this is muscular imbalances. We are designed to move, to be free and to live without the comforts that we are surrounded by now. Because of this, the average human is riddled with imbalances galore. Your hips, your back, your quadriceps (thigh muscle) vs your hamstrings (muscle on the back of your leg), there are plethora of possible ailments that could be causing your knee pain during or after a run. This is because these will be pulling your legs and joints in all kinds of directions, which in turn will either cause that joint to not function correctly, the tendons around the joints being too tight and over worked thus causing inflammation or send your biomechanics completely off, causing the forces being applied to your body to not be absorbed correctly.
The solution for this is notice when you’re tight, have restricted movement or move in an asymmetrical way from limb to limb. That will give you a good indication as to where or what is going slightly off kilter in your body. From there, you’ve got to look at mobilisation exercises for that area of your body, stretches to help and use release techniques for the knots that have formed in your body. The other side of this though is to strengthen the muscle that works against whatever is tight.
This of course is a very basic overview on what you need to correct your imbalances. Some of this can be done on your own but a professional opinion is always a good idea to ensure you don’t injury yourself. There are plenty of resources online to aid you in your return to full functionality.
For further information on this, there are plenty of YouTube videos out there to show you the right technique.
Does barefoot running hurt your feet?
For so many years, knowing what I know now, I spent many of my formative years wearing shoes, trainers and football boots that were all damaging my feet and was not embracing the natural way of running. For the last couple of years, I have run in only barefoot mimicking shoes such as the Vibram FiveFingers and now the Vivobarefoot, and it has been nothing but an absolute revelation. The benefits that I feel I’ve seen from it are:
- For me it has completely reduced the number of injuries that I’ve had, when before hand I was always dealing with something.
- It has improved my running form, meaning it doesn’t feel like I’m fighting to move forward thus improving my efficiency.
- It has strengthened my feet and calves to start functioning correctly and in a more healthy manner after facing issues from a badly treated injury.
If barefoot running is something that you want to try out, I would definitely advise you to start off very easy with it and really listen to your body. After plenty of years of running in the mainstream training shoe, your calves and feet will have weakened, as well as your biomechanics being not quite where you need it to be. It won’t happen over night but definitely doable. I did write a blog that covered my full journey to barefoot running as well as a breakdown on the two brands of shoes I’ve used to get back to basics so I’d advise checking it out!
Why should I run?
I would definitely support anyone with getting back into or starting their running journey. It’s a very easy way of getting exercise and can be done anywhere and doesn’t require a weird and wonderful array of equipment or gym memberships to be able to do it. All you need is an open space and the will to do it!
As to the benefits of it, these are numerous and not limited to the following:
- Boosts your mood from the release of feel good hormones in your body
- Improves your cardiovascular fitness, aiding your heart and lung health
- Allows your body to become better at managing the stressors put on it from outside sources
- Sounds counter intuitive but it will actually make you feel more energetic
My advice if you haven’t been running and only just starting, make sure to take your time with it. Give yourself a small goal, whether this be time or distance for every run, start small and work your way up, progressing by 10% every week with whatever metric you give yourself. Start with 2-3 runs a week, even if they comprise of walking and running in intervals, until you’re comfortable running the whole distance. Then from there, use the 10% rule to increase your running.
Do you actually enjoy running?
Hell yeah! Running is such a simple way of exercising and I’m not sure if you’re aware, though where have you been if you aren’t, that exercising is both good for you body and mind due to the physiological changes you go through and the chemicals released naturally. Adding in seeing somewhere new, beautiful and interesting only adds to that joy! Then afterwards is probably when there’s the biggest hit of that feel good factor, when the endorphins are released and in full flow. Add in the extras of it being a particularly arduous run with say the weather conditions, getting back, having a hot shower and get into something comfy makes it feel so much better!
OK, there is a slight disclaimer here. This is something that’s kind of only applicable when you’re running along at an easy pace for either a training run or to explore a location, such as a landscape or city. However, when you running a hard race, testing yourself to the max with a challenge or putting your all into a training session, this great feeling during may not occur and you may not really enjoy the experience at the time. Upon reflection afterwards though, you’ll feel amazing with both the self pride achieving whatever you set out to do and as the endorphins hit, giving you the feel good feeling post run.
Taking the point of the last paragraph, this takes me on to the solution for you to start enjoying your runs. Relax! People when they run just go out too hard, leave themselves out of breath and hating the whole experience. Most of your running, whatever your goals, should be in the easy range and will allow you to relax into things and just embrace it.
Should I Eat Before a Run?
A simple question but not quite so simple to answer without considering a key thing here: timing. I could try and get technical when it comes to nutrition, timings of when you eat and what you eat and how this can effect your goals, whether it be fitness or body composition.
I wouldn’t advise you eating right before running unless it is only light such as fruit, an easy to digest bar such as a Naked bar or a nutrition gel. This should make sure that you haven’t got a full stomach which can easily lead to getting stitch or feeling nauseous during your run but will give you a source of energy during your run but this shouldn’t be for anything too long or your energy levels thus performance will drop off.
Should you be going on a longer run or preparing for a race, I would advice something bigger with plenty of carbs to keep you fuelled for the start and all the way through. This should be eaten at a minimum of 2 hour before the start though to allow you to digest it properly. There’s nothing worse than starting out and getting that awful feeling in your stomach, ruining your race.
Running is something that I would implore everyone to do and I’m passionate about helping anyone and everyone get the most out of their running, whether this be for fitness purposes, to achieve the goals that people set themselves or due to them being a little bit competitive and wanting to test themselves against others. It’s a brilliant sport to not only help your physical fitness but you mental too, whilst allowing you to explore places that you may never have been before.
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