If you have recently started in this running, it is safest that you have noticed some of these pains in the first days of training. These are pains that appear in the novice runner because the body is not used to it or because it does not run properly. With some of these pains you have to be very careful and with others you just have to let time go by.
If we start in the race progressively and with the right equipment, most of these pains will be mere anecdote. However, one of the first things the rookie runner must do is listen to his body and know how to differentiate a transient discomfort from a pain that can cause an injury.
Strains or muscle pain of delayed origin
It is the most characteristic pain in the first days of the race. The aches after running are a result of the amount of muscle fibers that have suffered damage because they are not used to running and that cause you uncomfortable punctures. They usually appear a few hours or the next day. It is not a dangerous pain nor do we have to stop the activity, they simply cause us some discomfort.
Stiffness can be mild, with muscle discomfort but that does not prevent us from normal movements or intense soreness, which indicates that we have spent a lot with the intensity of training and will affect the movements of the next day, making us face of pain after any movement.
The first thing we can do to prevent stiffness is to control the intensity and duration of the first workouts, where it is advisable not to exceed 15-30 minutes and at a very smooth rhythm in which at no time do we notice fatigue. Then we can perform gentle stretching exercises that will begin to improve muscle recovery. In the shower we can also prevent or alleviate the stiffness of the next day by doing contrast baths with hot and cold water so that the circulation cleanses the muscle of metabolites. And if the next day we notice the stiffness, doing a gentle exercise that involves those muscles will help to get rid of the pain before.
Pain in the sides of the knee
Keep in mind that your knee has been used to walking, when we start running do not follow the same pattern of movement and linearity. After doing a few hundred impacts the lateral ligaments can suffer and that is when we begin to notice discomfort.
I recommend that as soon as you notice this pain, stop running and start walking. A pain in the knee is not to make deaf ears and if we force that discomfort can become an injury. Better wait a couple of days to rest the knee and after this break back to the activity with a good warm up and smooth race.
Ankle pain in the novice runner
Here something similar happens to the knees. The ankles support the full impact of the stride and these usually yield inward (pronation) or outward (supination). Our ligaments are not used to these impacts, so it is important to warm up your ankles before going for a run and the first days alternate running with walking.
The pain in the ankles can also be due to a bad choice of the shoe. If the shoe is not specific to running it is usually too rigid or if we have some overweight there is not enough cushioning. Choosing good shoes will also take away some pain in the first few days.
Pain in the toes or toenails
This can have two causes: an excess of kilometers in the first days or shoes too tight. Both continually crush the feet and cause that in each footprint the tissues suffer. In the end the blisters or the feared black nails finish, that cry out for a time of rest or a change of footwear.
When we buy running shoes we must bear in mind that the foot needs a certain margin of freedom, because if we run a downhill or accelerate the pace the foot tends to go forward, something that presses too much the fingers if the shoe is tight.
Likewise, a runner must take good care of the hygiene of the feet and one of the first measures will be to cut the nails properly so that they do not protrude from the fingers, something that can save us pain during the first days of the race and also when we start to make longer runs.
Know how to differentiate the type of pain when running
As we said at the beginning, the runner must learn to distinguish the type of pain. It will not be the same pain that the next day we have due to the aches that a pain in the inside of the knee that bothers us when we go out to run.
It is always better to err on the side of caution and in the face of an annoyance that prevents us from running normally for a couple of days to see if it goes away and otherwise go to the doctor or specialist to diagnose what may be causing this pain and if we should Stop our race workouts.