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Originally Posted by redwings
Im 22, 5'10, 180 lbs, and have been on a mission to lose as much weight as possible in one month. I have been running at least 5 miles (yes) everyday. On some days I will run in the morning and again at night if I have time. Its almost like a high. More recently my calfs have been starting to throb during my runs and after my runs. It isnt that painfull but I just dont know if I am causing any damage to my legs. I looked all over the internet to find out the effects of running too frequently, but have found nothing. Am I running too often? I dont want arthritis or anything, I just want to lose weight and fast! Can anyone help?
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Arthritis is a bone injury (for our purposes anyway), and unless you already have it, you aren't going to give it to yourself this way. What's most likely happening is that you're overexerting some muscle group in your calves because of some small inefficiency in your stride. It may or may not be fixable but probably doesn't matter since you're not training for racing. The "throbbing" is almost certainly your calves telling you that you're doing too much without giving them a chance to adjust to the workload, so your choices are to cut back or power through. IMO you should cut back. Note: I am assuming that by "calves" you mean the muscles and not any connective tissue. Without seeing exactly where you mean, I can only guess based on your very vague description.
Now, as far as "running too frequently", you're asking the wrong question. Back in the day, I ran on a 14-day cycle with one rest day averaging 14-19 miles a day, depending on where I was in my macrocycle (the 14 day period is the microcylce). There's no such thing as running too frequently, and you can actually run every day for several calendar years and get no adverse affects. What you can do, though, is build mileage too fast, which can cause all sort of soft tissue damage, including your IT band, achilles tendon and all sorts of other grissle that you never thought you had. The general rule of thumb is to add an additional 10% to your mileage every week until you're running the weekly distance that you want. If you've gone from 0 to 35 miles/week like it appears, you are inviting injury.
The other thing that you want to pay close attention to, as other have said, is your shoes. At 35/week, you need a mid-level shoe that can provide the kind of cushioning and support that you need. Personally, I don't like Nikes (that's my opinion, and you're welcome to your own), but you should go to your local running store (if you have one) and get fitted for something the suits your gait, mileage and goals. Don't fall for gimics. Running shoes are generally good for about 400-600 miles depending on the brand, where you're running (trails will extend the mileage, concrete will drastically shorten it) and if you're rotating a couple of pairs or not. If you don't have a local running store (note: going to Foot Locker is like going to Best Buy for a high-end computer. The employees there aren't trained in what they're selling), go online to find one of the 5 or 6 that do a great job and have a 800 number. Roadrunner does a great job, and the customer service folks are all hired because they have a running background.
I spent 12 years as a pretty competitive track, road and cross country runner and know this stuff pretty well, so feel free to ask questions about anything. I'm always happy to help.
Quote:
Originally Posted by redwings
Truth is the reason why im going so insane with diet and exercise is because college kicked my ass with drinking and unhealthy eating and i gained a good 15 pounds of FAT. I have hardly any muscle at all. I am embarrassed to take my shirt of outside because im a little self conscious of my stomach. Im one of those guys that looks skinny with a shirt on.
If your saying that its not healthy to lose weight fast, its like sayin i am fucked for this summer. Its a lose-lose. Either be fat or be unhealthy. Ill take unhealthy.
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No, you just need to be smart about it. You aren't going to lose a gut by running for a couple of weeks, even at age 22 or whatever. You need to be smart about what you're doing and make sure that you incorporate your diet into your overall plan. If you keep running longterm, you'll eventually get to the point where it doesn't matter what you eat - for me, that point was around 75 miles/week - and you'll just constantly need to feed the fire. You generally start burning fat 30 miles into a run (depending on how much energy you're exerting), but as your body adapts to the new pressures you're putting on it, it will take longer to acheive that stage. The good news is that when you reach that point, you're in pretty damn good shape.