Treadmill to natural running in the spring transition

Supercell

My knees seem to be very prone to injury, so have to introduce change into my training regime gradually .

Over the winter months have been on the treadmill, however with the days and evenings getting brighter now would much prefer to be running around in the open air.

However this obviously will lead to different stresses on my knee's and am a bit wary about venturing outside as a result as injuries seem to take longer and longer to heal up every year..

Any winter gym joggers or otherwise that have tips on moving outside safely but keeping fitness levels up at the same time?

hunnymonster

What works for me is to do my long runs outdoors to enjoy the weather and the speedwork and guts-out running on the threadmill.


The conventional advice would be to make sure your trainers are suitable and new enough, to run on grass or trails as often as you can adn to keep feet low to the ground. The other thing is to contnue to stretch when running outdoors. It's so much easier to remember to do it in the nice warm gym with all the mats and balance balls etc.

Supercell

hunnymonster wrote:

What works for me is to do my long runs outdoors to enjoy the weather and the speedwork and guts-out running on the threadmill.

Thanks hunnymonster, know exactly what you mean.
Guts-out in the open air is fun too, but will save that until June/July when lying down on the roadside for a few minutes in the sunshine is OK (I live in the countryside so only the cows and sheep will see my shame!!).