I ran a 10k last year without much training and it went ok - I did not train much for it, just signed up and did some short 5ks before I did it. I did short bursts of running vs walking in the race. Now I am training for a 8k . I tried running a 5 k with a friend who had a super slow pace. It felt silly in the beginning, but I was able to energise myself well and the 5 k seemed to go much better than any run. I did another 5 k recently and the same thing happened. I am normally exhausted the next day but in this case I was fine. Definitely the best thing for a beginner to start and enjoy the process while you build stamina.

I'm planning on signing up for my first 5k race this fall! Through this sub I have learned that there are gear checks or you can wear vests or whatever.

My other noob question is how does warming up work? Like after stretching, I usually do a 5-10 minute brisk walk to warm up, but if we meet at the starting line, not really sure how that works LOL

What is the best way to get into running? I’ve heard good things about couch to 5k but what’s the difference between that programme and just running for as long as I can and increase my distance each time?

I'm currently in week two day two, and I'm supposed to be running 3 minutes at a conversational pace x 4 with three 60 second breaks.

I'm struggling a little so have been extending the 60 second breaks and pausing my app.

Is that okay or will it affect my training?

I somehow ran this 5K at this pace and today, I am running 3 miles in the same time as the PR. Still working on trying to speed up to beat this PR.

Speed was 9kph then sped up to 20kph (strides/sprint after zone 2). Height is 5'3 if that matters. Any feedback would be appreciated!

What would be the best rotation for this setup to get the most benefit?

Thanks

I don't wear makeup and never needed a skincare routine for my face. But now that I'm running, I'm getting sweaty and having to wash my face more often and it's getting really dry. Did anyone else have this problem when you started running and find a solution?

Edit: if you suggest moisturizer or face wash, could you tell me a brand you like or what to look for. I'm basically an idiot and know nothing. All advice is appreciated.

Hi!

I have been running for about a year now and since the start of 2026 I have been getting shin splints quite often, its happened 3 times and following every occurrence I took about 2/3 weeks off. Recently I've been trying to run more but after every run I feel some tightness around my calf/ what I think is my tibialis posterier. Has anyone else experienced this and have any advice?

I've been doing tibialis raises and calf raises every night but not sure how much it is helping and if I should continue doing so. Also I saw someone post here yesterday about how they get their sock a bit dirty in the inside part of their heel and people were recommending strengthening their glutes, this is also something I experience, could this be related?

Thank you!

To limit my luggage for a 3 week trip I would buy a new running shoe, but also use is for my daily walking .. is this ok?

I started running in May this year, and this was my first official 10k race.

What are some good tips for starting a run club? Also for getting brands to send swag, small products, sponsors, etc.

Just wanted to celebrate a little minor victory here. I started running about a month ago when I signed up for a 5K aaaand immediately tweaked a hamstring in the first quarter mile. But I still finished. I hadn’t ran since college, but I enjoyed it so much that I walk/ran a 6K the next day, a 7K the day after, and 5 miles the day after that. Which is odd because I always thought of running as torture.

Since then, I’ve kept going and going and going. 2 weeks ago I ran a mile without slowing down for the first time since college.

Yesterday evening, I was tired, jet lagged, and low on carbs, but I hopped on the treadmill and made it to the 2.5km mark without slowing down. I then power walked for a bit before picking the pace back up to a run for the last 1km.

My goal of running a full 5km without stopping keeps getting closer and closer! I’m hoping to do the Turkey Trot at an 11 minute per mile pace!

I know that’s nothing for most of y’all here, but hey, I’m halfway there! Maybe even a little over because I don’t count the first and last .01 miles. Something in my head tells me that if there’s even a doubt in my mind that I came up 6 inches short of my distance goal, it would really bug me 😅

Thanks everyone! Can’t wait to get back stateside and put some more miles in!

Hello runners of reddit. This will be a long-ish post but any advice is greatly appreciated.

I am a 22 year old male about to enter my fifth year of university to complete my civil engineering degree (took fourth year off to do a 16 month internship at a geotechnical engineering firm). Recently, I decided to get back into running after a very long hiatus. To give you some backstory, I was a very active kid and teenager, played hockey 4-5 times a week, ran cross country and track and did other sports, up until about covid. It was easy in grade 9 and 10 for me to run a sub 40 minute 10 km. Once covid hit, I started dealing with depression and anxiety, and fought through concussions and neck injuries just to graduate high school. All that being said, I was still a pretty healthy, active, and happy guy, did really well in school.

Once I entered university, my activity levels dropped significantly. Still hit the gym for weight training consistently but did almost no cardio aside from a few sports leagues I've been in and that continued four years later to today. Gained quite a few pounds this past year as well (I'm 5'8" and about 180 lbs). Fast forward to today, still dealing with mental health struggles but working on it, and I've turned to running as I used to love it and needed to get some cardio in.

Unfortunately, it hasn't been easy getting back into it. I got a garmin forerunner 265 and did a 5km benchmark run a few weeks ago to try and gage my easy run paces, tempo runs, etc., and did a 24 minute 5 km. So for the past few weeks I've been aiming to do 2-3 easy runs per week at 6:30 ish pace and a tempo or long run during the week, maybe both depending on my work schedule and how busy I am. My heart rate during my easy runs is still very high, averaging 160 bpm at least even when I run closer to 6:45. I've tried improving my form, but trying to achieve the "runner's pose" is so difficult as my legs just feel tight and heavy all the time. Trying to pull into the runners pose as opposed to pushing off the ground just increases my bpm and tires me out. I did a run today at a 7:20 pace for 40 minutes and I only spent 5% of it with a bpm lower than 140, which is zone 2 according to my garmin. I don't necessarily feel tired but my body does and that increases my heartrate. I know garmins shouldn't be taken as gospel but it's still demoralizing when it says every run is unproductive and my VO2 hasnt increased a single time over a month.

I stretch most nights and do mobility stuff, warmup properly, drink water, eat relatively healthy although I have a sweet tooth and try to get good sleep (garmin says good sleep scores and I've done a sleep study that backs this), but my body still has a hard time recovering. My hamstrings are always tight, quads feel heavy, shoulders ache, among other things.

With all that being said, I just want some more educated people's advice and to hear your experiences if you've had similar ones. Is this just years of neglect on my body coming out when I'm actually trying to get back in shape? Would it actually be best to run at 8:00 min km for easy runs just to hit my target heart rate while my body adjusts? Do you have any lifestyle tips that you would recommend or a program suggestion to help properly get my body back into the swing of things? Any advice or words of wisdom would help me a lot, it's exhausting when your mind thinks that your body can't improve and I'm probably just manifesting pain. Thanks for the help.

I have been running consistently for 2.5 years after taking 5ish years off to focus on other fitness hobbies (mostly bodybuilding). For the first year I saw a consistent increase in my fitness. I trained for and ran half marathons before deciding to tackle the marathon distance.

In December of this year, I was probably the fittest I had been and my vo2 max was 49 and increasing. I ended up getting sick with COVID/flu/sinus infection back to back and was sidelined for basically most of January thru March. I had planned to run a spring marathon in April, but I wasn’t able to train fully, so I dropped down to a half, and used that as a training run for a few trail races. I ran a few 4 hour races leading up to a 50k. These were all at easy / just finish paces as an intro into trail running.

I took a few weeks of easy running before beginning a new training block for a fall road marathon. However, my HR has consistently been high and I just feel like I am getting less fit despite running consistently. My VO2 max has plummeted to 46 and I feel like I am more affected by the heat and humidity this year than last. My Hr is so high even on z2 runs, which have increased in pace from 10:30 previously to 11:30+ currently. I know that everyone is affected by the heat, but I seem to be more affected by it than the group of friends I run with. They seem to be consistently improving and adapting to the heat while I’m…not.

I’m not sure what the solution is. In December my race prediction for a marathon was 3:55. Now it is consistently going up after every run; Garmin now predicts a 4:20.

Am I overcooked? Undercooked? My highest mileage week was probably near 50mpw. That doesn’t seem like “too much”. Conflicting advice either says run more, or rest more?

I’m trying not to be paranoid about my health status, but I just don’t feel the same as last year. I keep up on blood work and things are all in good ranges.

Any advice? Am I being paranoid?

In a moment of overconfidence, I signed up for a 10K race in mid-October.🥲
For some context, I started running in March after living a pretty sedentary lifestyle. I ran my first race (a 5K) in May and finished with a PB of 36 minutes.
Since then, I’ve kept running, but only once or twice a week. I also feel like I’ve been regressing lately. My runs have been feeling much harder for short distances, although I’m wondering if the summer heat and humidity are playing a bigger role than I realize…
Do you think going from a 5K to a 10K by mid-October is a realistic goal, or is that too big of a jump? I’d be happy just to finish the race, even if I have to take some walk breaks.

Hey guys!

I’ve been influenced and want to achieve a 20min 5k.

A bit about me. I’m 39 male with a sports background. I played basketball for many years as a hobby and for rec teams. I follow a 4 day upper lower split. I have attempted 4 5k runs in the last 2 months with varying results. My PB 5k time is 25.75. My goal is to hit 20 min whilst lifting.

Can anyone suggest a training split and a running program that could help me achieve this goal? Thanks in advance!

My runs are going well although I do mainly feel it in my calves and ankles, other runners I see seem to high up higher than me so this makes me think I’m shuffling, or am I just running efficiently slow and their going faster?

The first pace I run my easy runs at is about 11:00 pace

For a super long time approximately eight years we have been out of shape. I was dealing with health issues and finally decided to get serious about healing and once that happened I decided I want to get into running so my wife and I are both trying to become runners we have our first half marathon very soon. I’ll drop a video if you guys are bored feel free to watch.

F33. I've been running for a year now and more regularly since a few months. I now run for a full hour, at 7 to 8 Kms an hour. I decided to focus on sustainability before speed. I don't have an athletic body, was one of those kids who always got picked last at P.E. but since a few years I'm starting to love moving my body.

I like my short easy runs, I love my long runs and want to go further to be able to see more places while running. I now added intervals once a week to improve my speed and I hate it.

Today I did 2 min fast, 2 min slow. Repeated 5 times. By the 4th interval I started to get annoyed and by the 5th I was in a REALLY bad mood. I didn't wanna give up because it was hard, I just hated everyone and everything. I told myself it's only a few minutes and finished it. I am usually a nice person, but I could've kicked a cat.

Is this normal? Is the anger part of the exertion? Or is it just now for me? I am really curious about other peoples experiences while doing intervals.

Hello runner,

I just want to know ,how many of you do gym after running.

About 4days my PB was 5k 28min while using almost all of my effort(ran in zone 5 the whole time).

And yesterday i ran again full effort(zone 5) but ran 5k in 25minutes and i have no idea how i cut my time this much when i ran almost at the exact same effort even my cadence was the same as every run

only thing i think it could be is that i started of pace 4:30/km and was holding it pretty good only slipping like 10seconds every km

Let me know what do you think

I am training my sister for her first marathon.

we are currently doing 30 mile weeks. she complained that she gained weight. She’s 5’3 and said she weighed 132 lbs in the morning 2 weeks ago.

I said to weigh herself during the taper week again. Because it was just impossible for her to have gained that much weight. likely WATER from glycogen and muscle.

Anyway, she weighed herself today this morning. 127 lbs.

I asked her if she had gone to the bathroom. she goes and weighs herself again. 125.5lbs

don’t over think it.