hello I was hoping to get advice on running! i was never particularly athletic but started doing couch to 5k and have just hit the 3mi mark but itâs TOUGH and I donât really feel like I can easily do it. How do I get better at running, and faster and be able to hit longer distances? is it just practice? it seems so far out of reach đ my hip also hurts when I run but is that just because Iâm bad at running?
hey, congrats on hitting your 3 mile mark, thatâs incredible! i remember the first time i ran 3 miles and it was also tough. one thing i know now was i was going way too fast!
the answer to most of your questions is to just run more, but i would specifically advise slowing down as you run more.
slow down so much it seems easy and you could have a chat while running those three miles. it might feel âtoo slow,â and might seem silly to go that slow, but this is how you a) make three miles not feel tough, b) go longer distances, and c) get faster. this is also how you preserve your own mental fortitude by not making running miserable all of the time.
running is miserable some of the time, and i would even venture that it should be miserable a very slim sliver of the time, like when youâre doing hill repeats or sprinting or you just hit mile 24 of a marathon. but i digress.
also, the slower you run the farther you can go. if you want to go farther and eventually get faster, you need more time on your feet; more time running causes physical adaptations in your body that make running easier/more efficient. and importantly, you cannot force these adaptations by going faster or farther than youâre ready to, you can only injure yourself this way.
if you wanna go farther and faster, you canât increase both at the same time. your body isnât adapted to both, and asking it to adapt to both is a recipe for injury. pick either distance or speed to increase and do so very cautiously. finishing a workout and feeling like youâve still got gas in the tank is a good thing.
and at the beginning of your running journey, just running more is likely going to improve your ability at both speed and distance.
idk how many miles youâre running per week, but the common idea is, donât increase your mileage more than 10% per week. so if you ran 10 miles this week, no more than 11 next week.
about the hip painâright out the gate, this isnât medical advice and i recommend a physical therapist, which is how i cured my own hip pain when i first began running. she identified muscle imbalances in my bodyânamely that my thigh muscles were a lot stronger than my glutes, which were not activating during running and my thigh muscles and my hip flexors were overcompensating, hence the pain. so your issue could be strength based, and strength training is incredibly helpful to running even if thatâs not the source of your pain. it could also be to do with your gait when running, which is something a PT can help you sort out. i had to change my gait significantly in addition to strengthening my glutes to sort my pain. another possible culprit is your shoes. your running shoes might be old, after about 500-700 miles, you should retire your shoes; after about 300 miles shoes will start to be affected by the use. so if your shoes are old or arenât exclusive or specifically running shoes, time for new ones.
it could also be that your shoes are not the right specs for your body/gait. i run in shoes with a high drop (10mm), which is the distance between the heel and the toe of the shoe. i once tried to change brands of shoes and switched to an 8mm drop thinking iâd be fine, but i was not fine. i had tendinitis in my achilles for two months following ~60 miles in the new shoes. i went back to a new pair of my old shoes and the tendinitis went away.
SO thatâs a lot way to say idk see a PT.
and while soreness is to be expected and a little ache or two, running shouldnât cause real pain, and if it is, thatâs a sign somethings up. it doesnât mean youâre a bad runner either, it just means you need to pay attention and make some adjustments.
donât seek a destination (like getting faster) when running, just run. itâs not going to be a steady incline of progress where each run improves on the last. your ability to enjoy the act of running itself will help you stick with what can be a lifelong hobby. and that brings me back toâslow down.
and as for running in the heat, it will always be harder than running in cool/cold. my paces drop significantly in the heat no matter how much i run in it. it also makes you sweat more, which means youâre losing (and thus need to replace) more water and more electrolytes when running in the heat vs running in the cool.
be kind to yourself. if running feels hard one day, whether itâs because of heat or because of life stress or bad sleep or whatever, just go easier so you can enjoy it and stick with the habitâthis will almost always lead to improvement, but it certainly wonât make you worse at running.
good luck!
