Mid 30's and hurt all the time

To me it's the lack of sleep that's the issue.

Sort that and you'll cope much better with the above. It's the key to recovery.

Try get into yoga also, my girlfriend does it and uses a youtube channel to put on the tv and does it every morning but even a couple time a week would work wonders

Running/jogging is very hard on your joints. You're damaging them every time.

Take up swimming or just go for walks instead.

My knees are fcuked from cycling.

My GP is big into cycling himself. I told him id started cycling many years ago to get fit as it wouldnt be hard on the knees.

He said that its a myth that cycling isnt damaging to the knees. His are shot too. And many others in his club have bad knees. It wears out your knees over time.

Hes seen so many men take up cycling when they are in their 40s and wear out their knees by their 50s he says.

But besides that once you hit about 35 you start to notice that injuries heal slower. 45 and they heal at a snails pace. Even cuts and scrapes seem to take 3 or 4 times as long to heal than they did before.

Your body just cant recover from injury or stress like it used to anymore.

In March I was running 3 times a week, cycling once and 2 days of weights.

Runs were say 3k, 5k and 15k. Cycle 60 to 80.

I was feeling it.

Changed up to 3 cycles. 20, 40 and 60. One run 5 to 10k and 2 days weights.

The difference was unbelievable. My running didn't really suffer over the 10 distance (struggled with anything longer) and my cycling improved a lot.

Kept that up for 4 months or so.

Then we did a charity thing at work so went a bit mad, cycling 6 days a week.

Now cycling 1 day, run 1 day. Weight 3 days, kayaking 2 days.

All good too.

Running puts a lot of weight through the legs. I'm 95kg minimum. And running roads more than twice a week leaves me under performing.....

Also I totally get the head thing. But I find cycling and kayaking just as good.

I'm heading for 40 with 2 kids under 5 too...

I don't believe in this common conception that mid 30's is some sort of early old age.

I've been active, one way or other all my life; decent level GAA and rugby to 30, ultra endurance cycling up to my early 40's and have always been interested in keeping strong generally through gym and heavy farm work.

At 40 I was stronger than I was at 30, at 40 I was cycling distances that I wouldn't have dreamed off at 30.

If I was you I'd focus on a few areas before I'd go for another single run

1. Learn to move properly. See what you ROM is like for all your major joints and fix any issues
2. Learn to relax/switch off. Meditation, yoga whatever works
3. Learn how to sleep properly; we all have bad habits; screens, too much caffeine, sugar at wrong time, worrying about stuff you can't do anything about at 11pm,4am whenever!
4. Go for a mental health check up. Same as you would get your bloods checked. You will find some low hanging fruit, proactive is better than reactive
5. Get your diet 90% right; it's not rocket science

When you have all that done, get a training routine/program that has a focus on mobility and strength. Keeping strong is one thing you will value as you age

Best of luck

I don't know if you've found like I have that the massive reduction in movement in general during lockdowns, etc has made exercise that bit stiffer? Even just the act of getting up, going into work - whether you drive, bus or cycle - gets you moving to some degree. Even the walk from your desk in work out to the toilets or to get a drink is twice as long as it is at home. And that's all been gone. So I find myself much stiffer.

Pre-covid I could just stand up from my desk, and get out for a run and go hard nearly from the start. Now I really need to take time to warm up, the stiffness is very noticeable.

Sleep is of course a big one, forcing yourself to go to bed earlier.

Hydration is another big one that people miss out on. If you don't drink much water during the day and have a couple of beers before bed, then you're going to be very stiff the next morning. Hydration unfortunately is not an easy fix by having a big drink once a day. It's keeping a constant small inflow all day; a pint every 2-3 hours, or a small glass every hour, whatever works for you. And maintaining that on an ongoing basis. Dehydration today won't be fixed by having a big drink, it takes hours, even days to bring yourself fully up to scratch. This is why the bulk of a hangover can be gone by lunchtime but you still may not feel top-notch when you wake the next day.

Stretching is a contentious one. The focus is shifting away from cold stretching and moving towards warm stretching - go for a warm-up run/walk/cycle first, and if you still feel stiff, then stretch. Kids sports in particular are dumping the practice of 15 minutes of stretching and star-jumps, and just having the kids play 15 minutes of games to get warmed up before moving onto drills, etc. No stretching required. Of course, it's a case of whatever works for you. But you might find that getting up and going straight out for a 15 minute walk leaves you feeling much more limber than writhing around the bedroom floor doing stretches.

It may be worth looking at gait and posture analysis of your running technique to see if its contributing to the issue

I find if you keep up a routine the pain will go. What is tough is the stop starting. During lockdown I had no access to a gym or weights. When I got back into weights last June after six months off my body was in bits. But I kept on going even when muscles were sore and eventually the pain went. I am 37. Perhaps as you get older it is tougher to start after a break. But once your in a routine I don't think there should be a problem.

My brother has problems with his joints and back. The doctor told him that he is about 10kg overweight. Nothing major and very common for the weight to creep on in your 30's. But the doctor says even that amount of weight over your healthy weight can have big impact on your joints particularly if you are doing impact sports like running. Some people lure themselves in to a sense of security of well maybe I am a few kgs over weight but I am fit and eat healthy. Well unfortunately all your joints care about is how much impact and stress you are putting them through and those extra kgs make a difference.

Agree with this. Become more physically active. Walk or cycle instead of using the car as much as possible.