TWINGES CAN BE A SIGN TO SLOW DOWN

EVERY week, Maeve Quigley will be pulling on her trainers, breaking a sweat and inching ever closer to achieving her goal of being fit enough to run the Dublin VHI Women’s Mini Marathon on June 3. She will regularly track her progress in a searingly honest column about the aches, pains and inconvenience of making fitness her friend... TIME is ticking along and with only 11 days left until the VHI Women’s Mini Marathon starts, my nerves about not disgracing myself are growing.

And as the times and distances are increasing, so too are the little niggles and twinges. One thing I found was after a day in heels, hopping straight into trainers for a run was not the ideal thing to do to help your calf muscles in any way.

And there are twinges and niggles in areas like the knees every now and again. A friend has cautioned me that her sister-in-law, a rheumatologist, has a clinic full of people like me wo have gone from zero to pounding the pavements on a regular basis and chastises those who run on concrete — the worst as far as she is concerned. But lots of people manage to run regularly without any injuries. So how do they do it?

A steady increase in distance is what Chartered Physiotherapist Garret Van Oirschot advises.

‘The first bit of advice is to look at your mileage,’ he tells me. ‘If you have been increasing quite quickly over the last few weeks then you might need to scale back on the mileage you are doing in the lead up to the race, just to make sure you are not overloading the knees or the ankles.’

However, a little bit of pain is, Garret says, pretty normal. ‘Delayed onset muscle soreness from exercise generally occurs 24 to 48 hours after you exercise and will subside after about 24 hours.’

If the pain lasts longer or if you start running and the pain seems to come back instantly then that’s something you should get checked out.

‘Sometimes for novice or intermediate runners the mileage increases too quickly so if you are feeling sore then scale back a bit.’

Essential to keeping in shape is warming up properly — but leave any stretching until afterwards.

‘The best thing is the warm up — a brisk walk or light jog for about ten minutes before you reach your running pace,’ Garret tells me. ‘You also need to make sure you are getting enough rest, enough sleep and the right nutrition.’

So in my case, the aches and pains are par for the course, even if that course is getting longer and more complicated. I tried fitting in the run during my daily commute but it proved cumbersome. Running with a rucksack is awkward and difficult and it does some terrible things to your clothes.

At the end of this week I will be running my first ever 5K, with the aim of not stopping in the middle of it.

See for the training plan.