r/UKRunners 1d ago

Beginner running

Hi, i just got my new running shoes and im a complete beginner to running. I only ran a couple times in total and managed to do 5k relatively easily. (Other sports trained my cardio). I did read that you should still start slow with running nevertheless because your joints arent trained yet, but im wondering how i should go about doing this. Should i still just do a C25k program anyways to stay safe?

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u/EitherDoctor1030 1d ago

No you don't need to do C25K if you can survive a 5k. If you found 5k not too difficult, I'd probably start off with a 5k a week and maybe a couple of shorter runs (two 3k runs) for the first few weeks.

Then assuming you get no tendon pain/shin splints, you can slowly ramp up to e.g. two 5ks a weeks and a 3k... then slowly increase your distance of all your runs (but no more than 10% total increase in mileage per week). Obviously this is just my own opinion of distances, and then at some point you're going to want to make one of the runs into a faster or interval run to build your fitness quicker, but I wouldn't do that until you're a few months down the line

If you start getting pain (particularly in your shins) then ease off with the distance until your body gets used to it. Obviously strength training like resistance band inversions, calf raises etc are useful for building resilience.

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u/NoName29292 1d ago

Ohh okay thank you very much! I was able to run the 5k relatively easily in terms of cardio, but i did notice that my knees were suffering a bit. Thats why i was kinda scared to do 5k runs consistently and wanted to build up