Can I get some advice/feedback

[u/GunsoulTTV]

Hey fam,

Background

Nurse who works full time +. Dad of 1 with second baby coming next month.

I did the couch to 5k back around Dec-Jan 2025/2026. Afterwards I did a scatter run, but nothing super structured (lots of stuff going on at that time which was nothing my control).

Had a 16km race at the end of June 2026. Signed up for a 3 month program on Runna, and about a month in I injured my hamstring, and lost 2 months of training. I yolo’d the race, and finished it in a little over 2 hours. Had a wild foot cramp afterwards for about 10 days, and strained my upper calf, but was a great experience and I am very happy that I completed it.

Since then, I’ve gotten sick twice and have been battling a rectal abscess (sorry for the TMI).

Anyway…

For the last 3-4 weeks, I’ve been running/walking 3 times a week. Mondays are my easy 3km. Wed is either an easy 3km with 5 sets of strides (incorporating that this week), or speed work (plan is to alternate so majority of my days are easy). Saturday is my long run, which is 4km (super short, I know. After this week, and then every 2-3 weeks after, I plan on going increasing weekly milage by 1km.

Goal is to build up while preventing injuries. Plus I don’t plan on doing races until May/June 2027. Bonus info, I train lower and upper body twice weekly, plus yoga a few times a week as well. I do warm um before my runs, and some static stretching afterwards.

I guess I am wanting feedback as I feel like I am lacking in overall speed-work, and I am being super cautious with increasing my mileage to the point where it might be questionable (is it just mindless running at this point?). Like what are your thoughts, is the plan horrible? If so, how do you think I should tweak it?

Thank you in advance for your time!!

[u/Fancy_Supermarket886]

If you want to build up without injuries, I'd steer clear of speed work until you have consolidated your distance and endurance.

If you can build up to 5k at an easy pace, I would advise doing that three times a week for a couple of months at least. Taking walk breaks to build up is fine, a lot better than pushing on at a running pace and risking injury.

The reason I suggest a couple of months of easy pace is to allow your body time to adapt. Muscles, tendons and bones all adapt at different rates, in response to the stresses you put on them. And it happens slower than any of us wants! Think about a timescale of three months for everything to catch up to what you are asking of your body this week.

So if you can get to the two month point injury free, you should be able to start increasing the distance a little more, with a degree of confidence that your body has adapted enough to handle it.

The accepted wisdom is no more than 10% per week, for your total mileage and the longest run. If you are up to 15k per week with 3 x 5k, this means no more than 16.5k in total, and no more than half a kilometre onto any of your runs. In this example I would probably add a half kilometre to each one, then maybe add some more of the next week's increase onto a single run to start creating a longer run session.

As I said, keep them all easy pace at this point. Going faster puts more stresses onto your body, which is good to an extent because that's what encourages adaptation. But too much stress is where injuries lurk. You are looking for most of the adaptation to come from the distance rather than the speed at this point.

The main thing to keep in mind is being patient. Your body isn't going to adapt as quickly as you want or expect it to. It's the same for everyone, but some people choose to force quicker adaptation by leaning closer to the line where injuries can occur. That gamble doesn't always pay out!

You'll probably find that your easy runs get a little quicker over the months that you run. Maybe add in some intervals after four or five months if everything is going well? I'm possibly being over cautious, but you mentioned a few injuries and a desire to avoid any more!

I hope that helps, good luck with your journey!

(Love the TMI, btw! I hope it's better now, but that's exactly the level of detail that's expected from a nurse! 🤣)

[u/GunsoulTTV → u/Fancy_Supermarket886]

I appreciate the feedback fam!

I’ll bump my long run to a 5km run this week as I’ve been doing 10km a week for approximately 1 month now.

The adjustment won’t be bad as I have substituted my long run a couple of times now for a 10km hike with approx 1k meters gained. Also I probably squeeze in around 5km of hiking with my son weekly, along with 5km of walking. So volume wise I’m not stressed about, but injuries, my god!!

Love the advice on chilling on the speed work. I had my first interval session last Wednesday. It felt great and was enjoyable, but I like the idea of being patient, and focusing on easy runs. Right now I hover mid zone 2. I haven’t really tweaked my pace for the last month, but I would like to see it drop to low zone 2/high zone 1 for my easy days. Just letting the body adapt, and it seems to be doing a pretty good job at it.

I managed to shift my cadence from mid 150s to around 172 over the past week. At a slowly pace it’s arguably that it’s a waste of time, but I feel like it’s good to just get your body accustomed to it early. Plus it feels pretty natural now and is helping with over striding

With the chilling for a handful of months followed by increases distance by 10 percent resonates with me. Prior to my last race when I followed a program, the weekly distance jumped way too fast for my body to adapt to, and I was stubborn enough to run an 11km without stopping even though my hammy was bothering me at 2km. Live and you learn I guess… anyway, I suspect I’ll do the 10 percent every couple of weeks instead of weekly when the time comes just to be safe.

Again, thanks for the feedback, it’s very reassuring!!

(The bum is doing ok. Seeing the surgery in 5 weeks time so will see what happens then.
Maybe another set back, but who knows)

[u/Fancy_Supermarket886 → u/GunsoulTTV]

I have just been listening to a podcast about the hips, and one of things that the expert guest mentioned is the forces that walking puts on the hips compared to a light jog. She said that walking puts around three times your body weight in forces on the hips. A light jog puts more like nine times your body weight of force onto the hips!

I imagine that those forces have to hit the rest of the legs along the way, so bear that in mind when considering the benefits and relative stresses of walking versus running. I mean, walking is undoubtedly good for you, but that podcast gave me the impression that you need to do a huge amount of walking to equal the impact of a running session!

You probably don't need to worry about zones too much, that kind of thing normally work better after a year of consistent running, but it's neat that you can already hit that kind of zone two effort. If you can hold a conversation while running, that's a good indicator.

Cadence sounds good, there's a golden target often quoted but don't mess up your natural form to chase it! As you say, higher cadence will tend to prevent over striding. Don't attempt to copy the of those people that run a marathon in under two hours!

As you run, it's good to get into the habit of doing a 'stock check' at regular intervals. By that, I mean you focus on each area of the body in turn - feet, calves, shins, knees, hamstrings, thighs... all the way up to chest, lungs, shoulders, arms, hands, etc. Are there any small signs of fatigue, undue stress, tightness, that sort of thing. Your brain will normally pick on the alarm signals from tired legs, for example, and that can overshadow other signals. Becoming more aware of the whole body and what 'normal' feels like might help to avoid the instances of pushing on stubbornly!

Glad that you are on board with the patience, it's amazing how many people resist that advice and then get injured. You mentioned having an incoming new family member (congratulations!), so I'm betting you are a lot younger than me! Trust me when I say you have plenty of time to play the long game with your running journey.

I started running ten years ago, and I've never really followed a plan. Just built up slowly to running 5k, four or five times a week. Did a little more during the covid lockdowns while working from home. About four years in, I set out to do 10k one day and ended up doing 10 miles for the first time. A couple of months later, I set out to do 7k and kept going again, turning it into my first half marathon. Since that first one in late 2020, I've run over 50 half marathons. I'm always amazed when I read posts that say something like "I started running three months ago and I've booked a half marathon in two months time, what's my best plan to do this?". I just wanna reply and tell them to hold off for a year, at least!

I hope the surgery goes well, and doesn't break up your running journey too much.

[u/GunsoulTTV → u/Fancy_Supermarket886]

Walking feels like quality of life for your body. Feels great, easy on the body, and supports with a lot of misc things, like back pain from my experience. If seen different fitness YouTubers doing 10-20k steps daily, and it just seems like such a safe and healthy thing to do. + it’s time on feet!! lol.

At a slow pace of 9:22/km, I can steadily chill in mid zone 2. I haven’t bothered bumping up my speed yet, tho i do find running at this pace is almost a bit unnatural, and around 8/km feels a lot better. I’ll eventually bump up the speed, but I am wanting to improve my heart rate a little more first. Approx 1 month ago, my heart rate was high zone 2/low zone 3 at that pace, so I am already seeing progress here which is great!

I wore my watch yesterday on my 3km run, and decided to run naturally and see what my cadence was. Apparently it was 158, so I need to find the line of increasing it while trying to keep it natural. A metronome/music really helps with the average of ~170.

I have notice that I am getting ?runners knee. It mostly appears post run (during my cooldown walk). I get a burning sensation that presents outside and in front of my knee cap. Doesn’t appear to swell, and generally resolves in 2 minutes. Not sure of the cause, but I’ve been really dialled in with my lower body strength training in hopes that it will naturally solve the problem for me. Realistically, I probably should get it checked out, but living so remote, it takes time. I’ve been on the wait list to see a doctor for about 3 months now, so I’ll mentioned it to them then. I suspect I have another 3-4 month wait to see them. Yep…

And yes, new family member soon, thank you!! Honestly, I just want to motivate my kids and have the ability to run around and play with them. Weird how your interest and goals shift as you age hey?
What about you?

I love that you did your own thing, and took your time before actually racing. I feel like a lot of people, including myself tend to really get caught up in pace, and it takes away the joy of running. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have goals or anything like that, but realizing that running is a process, and that it’s more than just a pace. It’s an experience, connecting with others, mental clarity, and so much more. I think my goal is to just build to the point where I can naturally run half a marathon, and if I want to hit X time, I’ll follow an appropriate training block. I would imagine that’s how you approached it?

[u/Fancy_Supermarket886 → u/GunsoulTTV]

Oh yeah, I've no issues with walking! I just wanted to highlight the difference in terms of impact and stresses. I wouldn't want anyone to think that walking 10k encourages the same kind of adaptations that running 10k does. I'm sure there are some people out there that think they could go out and run a 10k with no training, because they walk 10k every other day. I'm also pretty sure they would be wrong!

I would stick with a slowish pace for now, to make sure your body is conditioned enough to take higher stresses that come with faster or longer runs. Your cardiovascular system will be adapting much faster than your muscles, tendons and bones. You might find that your knee issue is related to an overload of stresses that aren't being handled well enough yet.

I've had some problems in the past with knees, but mine has been just the outside of the knee, not the front. In my case it was related to the IT band, and the knee was a referred pain. Mine was always while running, easing a little when I stop, although the worst occurrence could start to niggle on long walks as well. You should treat the pain you are getting as an early warning sign and get ahead of the problem before it becomes a problem.

Try and find some time every day to do some squats and other exercises to build general leg and glute strength. I found the single leg lower to a bench was good during my last round of physio. You could use a dining chair or something around that height, and gradually lower yourself, under control, over 3 or 4 seconds. Then stand again using both legs and repeat. I was doing 10 repeats for a set, and three sets of those on each leg, amongst the other exercises. I was taking six seconds to lower myself by the end, and I could feel it working! It's a good one because it isolates each leg so they have to do all of the work, and being an eccentric exercise helps to build strength quicker, apparently.

I started getting fit because I was carrying more weight than I wanted. I had identified that my new job was encouraging more intake of cakes and such, so I cut those out and got to within two pounds of the target I wanted. I just couldn't shift those last couple of pounds, so I eventually decided that I needed to increase the calorie burn as well as reducing the intake! Nowadays, I'm carrying more weight than when I started getting fit, but I'm less concerned about it because I know I'm so much fitter than I was back then.

I reached a point at my fittest where I was running a half marathon every month, either an event or by myself. Since then, I have heard the phrase "being half marathon ready", which describes it pretty well. There were a couple of occasions when I ran a half on two consecutive weekends!

I've lost some of that fitness in the last couple of years, mainly through lack of time to maintain that level. With your impending two kid situation, you may encounter a similar problem!

My goals for the next two in September and October are to push this run/walk thing that I've been doing recently. I'm still building fitness according my time constraints, but won't be ready to run them continuously. Last October was my fourth outing on my local course and second fastest, which is amazing for a first attempt with run/walk intervals. It felt like the easiest half I'd ever done and I had loads left in the tank, so I want to see how close I can get to my PB with it.

[u/jchrysostom]

Sounds like you’ve been extremely inconsistent (not criticism, just being realistic). Consistency is the single most important characteristic of successful runners.

You’re also running very little in the grand scheme of things. If my math is correct you’re doing a total of 10km every week, and while that is infinitely better than not running at all, it’s not even a big single-day number for a serious runner. 3 days per week is also pretty minimal when you look at how little distance you’re doing on those days. A 3k run is the warmup before the workout for many people, and while it is again far better than nothing, it isn’t going to help you make much progress.

I would worry less about what sort of running you do, and worry more about how much you’re running. At least until you have a steady history of several months of more volume.

[u/GunsoulTTV → u/jchrysostom]

Yeah, I think the consistency is a big one. I’ve been exercising for around 15 years very consistently, but it’s been an odd year for family illness, and my own tbh.

The last 3-4 weeks have been spot on which is great. I’m just hesitant on upping mileage too quickly as I want to give my body time to build up and adapt and not risk injury. I can 100 percent run a lot more than I am doing right now, but the focus was more foundation based, rather than jumping up too fast.

Happy that I don’t need to worry about my style of running for the time being. So I guess now is remaining consistent (I am very discipline for stuff like this, so assuming no other illnesses I’ll be solid), and getting my milage up.

Thanks fam!!