Running with sore muscles

Hi Guys, some advice please. My typical runs are 3 times a week of approx 8 miles each run. I want to increase the distance but suffer from a bit of muscles soreness after a 10 miler being my current LSR. I'm 55 years of age and want to move my typical run from 8 to 10 miles building to 15 miles for my Long slow run.

A friend advises that I should run every day but 1 ( rest day) and eventually the soreness will subside so that i can run 10 + miles without soreness being a regular feature.

My question. Is this normal to overcome soreness to run through it ? Is this what I should do or is it sensible to let the muscles recover as I understand the rest period is when the muscle fibres rebuild and repair.

I'm confused. Any advice appreciated

 

Many Thanks

Kili image

Comments

  • This really depends. It's a very difficult question to answer because there are so many things that could be going on.

    I personally would find that if I ran every day I'd be shattered and more likely to come away injured. So I run more every other day and sometimes have a couple of days off.

    I guess the main thing is to listen to your body. There are lots of variations between people. What might be good for one 55 year old might be crippling for another!

  • Hi Kili

    Moving from 3x a week to 6x a week is a recipe for disaster, especially at 'our' age.  A more sensible strategy is to (i) ensure that your long run is being run appropriately SLOWLY.  The LSR is intended to stimulate your body to generate the right kinds of muscle fibres, bone growth, and tendon / ligament / joint conditioning.  Increasing the distance may well cause a bit of soreness, but it shouldn't be anything significant.  If it is, you may be trying to push too fast.  (ii) Increase your distance gradually.  The rule of thumb is around 10% per week - that's max distance and total weekly distance.   Every 3/4 weeks take a step back week and drop a mile or so from your distance. 

     

    You don't say what your targets are - any particular race / pace?

     

     

  • KiliKili ✭✭✭
    LouiseG wrote (see)

    Hi Kili

    Moving from 3x a week to 6x a week is a recipe for disaster, especially at 'our' age.  A more sensible strategy is to (i) ensure that your long run is being run appropriately SLOWLY.  The LSR is intended to stimulate your body to generate the right kinds of muscle fibres, bone growth, and tendon / ligament / joint conditioning.  Increasing the distance may well cause a bit of soreness, but it shouldn't be anything significant.  If it is, you may be trying to push too fast.  (ii) Increase your distance gradually.  The rule of thumb is around 10% per week - that's max distance and total weekly distance.   Every 3/4 weeks take a step back week and drop a mile or so from your distance. 

     

    You don't say what your targets are - any particular race / pace?

     

     

    Hi LouiseG. I only run for health reasons and I have a target of increasing my distance to just over half marthon distance hence I would like to build to 15 miles. I work with a couple of runners who are always egging me to do a half or full marathon but I just dont feel the need to take part. I've been out with them both , there 25 years younger than me so naturally It's a job keeping up with the youngsters but I dont do to bad for an old fella.

     

    I'm happy running for myself and setting a target , any target just to give me something to focus on . I agree 6 times a week would proberbly be to much for i suspect but, I would like to increase to 4 runs a week but the soreness seems to be an issue . It seems I need two days to recover before I can get up to 8 - 10 milers each time.

     

    Thanks for your advice

     

    Kili

  • KiliKili ✭✭✭

    Medicaalert thanks for the reply. Sounds like good advice to me. I keep forgetting I'm not 25 anymore. Heck to be honest i couldent run 10 miles at 25 as i recall so maybe I should give myself a bit more credit image

     

    Cheers

     

    Kili

  • KiliKili ✭✭✭

    LouiseG.

    with regard to pace i did 9 miler on Saturday and the pace on my Garmin shows an average of 9:42 a mile. I have it in my head to keep under 10 minutes a mile. However I'm confused about pace as I've been running and getting the beep to tell me when I've completed a mile and on running a mile in 10 minutes then looking at the pace it shows something like 9:42 /m . I assumed that a pace of 9:42 was 9 minutes 42 seconds per mile if so why when doing a10 minute mile does the Garmin show a pace of 9:42?

    Confused image

  • Hi Kili, if its any help I've found that at 59 I sometimes need upto 2 days rest after my weekly long runs (from 10m upwards) and 1 day rest after other runs. On non run days I try to get to the gym and do some strength work - all helps me to stay injury free and gives old muscles a chance to recover!

  • Kili - sorry, can't answer for the vagaries of Garmin, other than to say that they allow for accuracy only to around 99%, and that moment by moment they can be slightly out of synch.

    On the pace question, I suspect if you have been running 8 milers regularly but are still sore for 2 days afterwards, you are simply pushing too hard.  I know it is counter-intuitive, but you will get better results if you slow it down a little, for a period of 6-8 weeks to allow your body to rebuild its infrastructure.

    Ideally, you would work out your optimal training paces by doing a time trial, given that you don't have 'race' results to use as a reference.  To do a simple version of this - warm up gently for 1.5 - 2 miles.  Do 3-4 sets of strides (sprints of 50ish metres, starting at about 70% of effort and working up to about 90%).  Take a minute to let your heart rate settle down again, then go flat out for 1 mile.  Then use that time in something like the McMillan pace calculator http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/  (Don't forget to cool off too...)

    If your only objective is to run longer, then you can simply use the Long Run and Easy training paces.  Try those a couple of times and you'll probably find that you can manage that 4th run each week.  More fun if you mix it up with some intervals / tempo runs, it'll get a bit boring just churning out 3 or 4 x 8-15 milers image every week.

     

  • Where do you run? Are you sure your legs are just sore and that there is no injury?

    As one reader said there are so many variables. Read www.oldmarathonrunner.co.uk as last year my legs were so sore I thought I would have to stop running. I knew why they were sore though! Run on a soft surface if you can. Read the web site. It's not very professional but you will see what worked for me. I am no expert but for me doing 6 days a week and 65K the surface was the answer.

  • KiliKili ✭✭✭

    Guys sorry for the late reply . For some reason I'm not getting the email notificationa when a response is made to this thread.

     

    I've taken on board all that you say and appreciate your advice and will think a bit more about what i do and how I do it.

     

    Many Thanks

    Kili

  • mordomordo ✭✭✭

    Hi Kili. I find myself frequently sore after a really long run and usually do a mini speed session the next day (a quarter to half mile slow warm up the 1 minute sprints with a 1.5 minute rest/stretch built up slowly ) which a find warms up the muscles and improves circulation - then a warm bath. 

  • KiliKili ✭✭✭

    Mordo thanks for that. So much to consider it's all a bit hit and miss this running lark lol...

     

     

    Thanks evreyone

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