UKC

past few weeks i have only been running at night (road) which made me around 40 seconds a kilometer slower and gave me horrible shin pain after only a kilometer or so. Chalked it up to a short break i took whilst ill and carried on anyway. Last weekend i had some time so i had a daylight run and my time was back up to average with absolutely no shin pain whatsoever. Has anybody experienced this before? could i be to do with my stride being different in the dark as i took to running with moonlight only after a while.

In reply to tingle: yes, I've come away sore from running really slow and chopping my stride. I get sore quads and back.

I think most people are a bit slower in the dark. I have however never bothered with a torch for the road - you shouldn't be that much slower (i am not a big fan of other runners using huge headlamps in the dark but thats another argument)

In reply to tingle:

There was a post earlier in the year that discussed getting more sore when running slow – not really an option for me, couldn't get much slower!

There was a modest consensus that slowing down did seem to have a detrimental effect in some people. Can't find the thread though, despite searching a few times.

In reply to tingle:

I think if you're running slower you do it by not pushing off so hard. Leg turnover and stride are the same, you just run easier.

In reply to wbo:

its the difference between seeing a small circle really well or seeing the whole road dimly, i still take it and flick it on when i can see a car coming though.

In reply to SouthernSteve:

great stuff at least now i know its not just me, with my luck if i sped up ill end up in the ditch or in a pot hole

In reply to DancingOnRock:


I love to be able to run easier with the same leg turnover and stride, that is called improving efficiency. You won't be going any slower.

In reply to tingle:

If you run slower then you land more vertically, virtually stop on each stride, and hence more stress on your body.
When you go faster you lean further forward and you simply maintain your forward motion by pushing against the ground.

I always found, when coming back from any injury/layoff, that a shorter run was better, as I could maintain a higher pace. Then once my body was used to it, I would indulge in longer (and hence slower) runs.

In reply to The New NickB:

Your stride length is obviously shorter but your form (way you stride as opposed to stride length) should be the same.