“Hang on, I thought this was about fell running?”
Yes, that’s right, and the number one lesson for fell running in my humble opinion is:
“Learn to walk before you run!”
This idiom is often used figuratively, but in this case I mean it quite literally.
In the beginning of starting to run, everyone has a little extra juice. Whether that comes from fresh muscles, enthusiasm, sheer determination and grit, or some other source, the truth is, the first time we go for a run, we often do more than we should. It feels good right? We got off the couch, pulled on our fancy new running shoes (or dug the older ones out of the cupboard) and got out and just did it! Yay!
I’ve done it myself, I’ve seen others do it too, I would guess that most, if not all, of us have done it, those sneaky little thoughts creep in “I ran so far at this pace last week, I have to beat it this week. I am putting all this effort in I must be improving, right?”
So by week four, maybe five or six, of our newfound enthusiasm for running we suddenly find ourselves back on the couch, nursing an injury, asking “Why? What did I do wrong?”.
I believe many of these injuries can be easily avoided if we just slow down and do less.
A typical couch to 5k program will utilise the walk/run method, this is really sound. However, I believe if you are starting out on the fells, the ratio of walking to running is way too low.
In short, I think more walking and less running is needed. I think this is even true for seasoned runners who are making a transition to fell running.
For myself I find the best approach to getting going (again?) is to make the first few ‘runs’ 100% walking.
I don’t mean meandering along and smelling the roses, although that is also a very nice thing to do. I mean walking at a very brisk pace so the exercise becomes strenuous active cardio. Trust me, if you walk as fast as you can up a steep hill you are going to know about it.
This is all well and good, but why is this necessary?
Essentially, your muscles grow a lot faster than your tendons and ligaments.
The problem we all face as runners is that in the beginning, our muscles are capable of a lot more than our tendons and ligaments, they require a much longer adaptation period.
This meme sums it up perfectly for me, I don’t know who to credit it to, but it is very funny and 100% true. If anyone knows who did this please let me know:
What does this mean?
Sorry, it’s not good news. It means we have to be content with being bored and just going much slower than our muscles are actually capable of to give time for our tendons and ligaments to catch up.
This is different for everyone. I am not sure if there is a method to determine how slow we should go on an individual basis other than personal trial and error.
The flip side of this, is that if you do find your limitations and you do hold back and walk, take it easy, and very slowly, patiently and carefully build up your strength the long term prospects are very good.
Joints are slightly different, they function in response to muscle and tendon strength. If your problems are in your joints, then maybe even strenuous walking might be too much and a lower impact exercise like swimming might be a better place to start your journey. I actually did this and it worked wonders. If you would like to hear about this, let me know.
There are other things that can be done to help this process along, and there is a lot more to walking as part of even the most advanced fell running, more to come on these topics in due course.
What do you think? Do you agree, disagree? Got any tips for walking and running?
Until next time – happy running (and walking)!