A few years ago I did Couch to 5k. I did all my running at a local park with hiking trails. I actually really enjoyed "running" at the park. After I finished the program, I signed up for a 5k that was run on a flat, paved trail. I finished it, but it beat me up so badly that I could barely walk for the next week.

But what did you do next?

Tore my rotator cuff doing crossfit and had surgery and never really got back into fitness.

This is obviously the real one true definition of "adult"

It is also why a lot of people in the fitness industry don't like CrossFit. The rate of injuries is absurdly high. For the longest time (maybe still) CrossFit had very minimal certification requirements for their coaches, so while some coaches had a long history and knew how to train safely, a lot didn't.

CrossFit did the community part really well, and then messed up the entire "train safely" part.

Yeah, I personally wouldn't crossfit. It's complicated doing reps for time, exacerbating form with fatigue, etc.

Also, they program stuff like high rep clean and jerks and snatches along with high intensity cardio and gymnastic movements. Never a great idea to train high power, highly technical movements with fatiguing exercises and time pressure, let alone with poor form. I did a few classes in SF coming from a background in Olympic lifting and strength sports and I really found maintaining form and safety was quite hard.

I also just found out that I have hypermobility syndrome and both running and crossfit are the worst things I could be doing because of the resultant joint instability.

Time to get into cycling!

A tale as old as time...

Running in a flat/straight line is an artificial construct. Our bodies evolved for running on rough terrain. A slower trail run will do less injury yet burn more calories than any hard sidewalk.

Race pace is tougher than training pace, too, though. I can run a comfortable few miles, but racing those same miles will cause me soreness the next few days.

> Personally, the low-tech solution of a plunger stuck to my forehead with a klondike bar dangling from the end has always worked for me.

Or you could borrow someone's labrador retriever and have the dog pull you. They like to go real far and real fast... and you get to practice hard turns.

> I HIGHLY recommend favoring trail running over running streets/sidewalks

As a triathlete - I would add something: for me it's more a case of running on soil, over a hard surface. Trail running may take you to a stony path, which is as bad as pavement/concrete.

But in the end it's training your running form to be the best it can be for running, that matters. Running uphill helps to naturally train a good form, even if it's significantly harder.

I completely agree. I used to live about 10 minutes from the beach, and I would do sprints up and down on the sand. There's not much that's more humbling than getting completely gassed after a whooping 60 seconds of running.

> Or you could borrow someone's labrador retriever and have the dog pull you. They like to go real far and real fast... and you get to practice hard turns.

You only need to be concerned about hard turns if the dog is untrained, afterwards, they're the best running partners you could ask for. Come visit us at https://www.reddit.com/r/RunningWithDogs/. Lots of suggestions for harnesses for the dog (mandatory, IMO) and waist leashes for the human (highly recommended).

If you own the dog, they can be a great source of encouragement, too. They'll bounce with excitement any time there's a possibility of going for a run, and look at you with big, sad eyes when you instead sit on your phone.

My old girl and I put in 20+ miles a week, 50 weeks a year, for a little over 8 years, or a little over 8,000 miles. That's a lot of M&Ms!

Thanks for the tips! I live in the middle of the concrete jungle that is LA so I instead have the kushiest moon-shoes I could find. As for the klondike bar I’ll have to train up my neck :)

I am the opposite :) I run every day. I prefer long stretches of asphalt without any bends

Job.

But also, running in forests messes with my pace and focus somehow.