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I am a 31-year-old guy, spent my life with zero sport, and lots of smoking. Recently I quit and I am happy about it.

I started to run for two weeks to lose weight, but I wanted to take it slowly since I am not used to sport.

So far I've been running three times a week, each time 2.3 KM.

I spent around 14 minutes in 2:38 KM

It's been two weeks now, so I raised the distance to 3.2 KM, which I do in 17:50 minutes.

I wonder if it is okay to run two days in a row, I am not saying I will always do it, but now I feel like running but I am afraid that I may hurt my muscles.

Any advice?

Update

This is my running history so far:

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    The biggest problem with running on low recovery, especially for beginners, is the risk of shin splints. It’s a very common issue for those who do too much too soon in running. The problem is they take forever to heal and a lot of people lose the motivation to run while they’re sidelined with an injury. I’d suggest increasing your distance by no more than 10%/week.
    – Frank
    Commented Jul 1, 2019 at 1:15
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    It's quite common to get overmotivated with sports in the beginning. What you could do is cross-train, go to the gym or swimming on off days and train some other muscles. Your cardiovescular system can take the hit.
    – Christian
    Commented Jul 1, 2019 at 11:13
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    It's sometimes best to just try something. You can read a book about it, but that's not the same. You are walking the day after running, correct? That's basically just slow running. Or are you staying in bed all day? The average 31year old will have a tight schedule that running has to fit into, wouldn't it be nice if you learned to read your body and see what it can take rather than following some optimized schedule with optimized breaks you are unable to follow 52 weeks a year anyways?
    – Raditz_35
    Commented Jul 5, 2019 at 16:35
  • I've got shin splints as Frank said.
    – Kashmiri
    Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 5:02

3 Answers 3

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As long as you have good shoes that are not getting past their life, the biggest bang for your buck for a beginner is overall volume. More is better when it comes to running, but you need to do it in a small increment fashion.

The first consideration is how many times a week you are running. Since you are running 3x week currently, at ~ 2.5k (1.5 miles for our imperial audience) per run, I would suggest that you don't increase the overall volume (7.5k for a week) but that you run more days for less per day. I would run 2 days at 1 to 1.5k each, take a couple days off. Run a day of 1k, then a day of 3 - 3.5k, then a couple days off. Lather, rinse, repeat for a few weeks (2-4).

Once you have that down, keep the distances the same, but add another day of 1-1.5k instead of one of the days of a two day rest (I would suggest that you not do it after your longest run to start). Do that for another couple of weeks. Self monitor, but keep adding days on that type of progression, until you are running at least 5 days a week, then you can start adding more kilometers to runs, again no more than 5-10% each time, and a couple weeks adaptation each time.

The biggest thing is to keep it all low key, easy pace mileage. Speed work is not necessary. I wouldn't recommend speedwork until you have been running consistently 5-6 days a week, and have a weekly volume in the 35k+ range. Running speed is more about volume than it is anything else, and for the vast majority of runners, they would get more benefit out of adding more mileage at lower intensity than upping intensity on their current volume.

Safe, steady progressions is much better than trying to add mileage as soon as possible.

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  • thanks for your answer. Some questions: did you actually meant to wait until I do 35K+ a week? this means 7 km a day :( For your suggestion to run 1.5K in sequences days then 3.5K after a day rest, do u think its better to do at least 2k ? I updated the question adding my history so far. in generate u want me to focus on distance not speed. right? appreciate you taking the time to help me Because of smoking, I still get tired in the 1st km, while the 2nd km is easier, but the 2rd one is hard, do you think i should not increase distance until I don't get tired in the first 3km?
    – Jack Thomson
    Commented Jul 6, 2019 at 20:17
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Firstly, congratulations for giving up smoking! As a previous 40 a day smoker who then took up marathon running, I know it's a massive step to take.

In the early days, if your frequency/mileage is too high, then problems and injuries will occur so keep things manageable. Something I always recommend when people ask for my two cents (and even when they don't) is, when in doubt, turn a professional. Whether that's a personal trainer or a running coach, experts are there a reason.

Something I suppose is maybe a bit vague is, what's specific goal? I know you said lose weight, but how much weight and by when? If your goal is specific enough then you'll find it'll be really easy to shape your exercise/training around that. It's something I've been doing for years now. I enter a race, find a training plan that suits me and follow it.

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I am currently 40 and run 4-5 times a week. I have approximately the same distances as you. It works for me, however I only increase the distance/time by aprox. 10% each week. I would also advise you to get a book with a training plan. It is much easier to follow a plan and see how your progress compares to the plan.

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