Running - 0 to 10km in 4 weeks - HELP!

I've done some long triathlons (so up to shuffling around a full marathon distance) whilst being a 'reluctant' runner.  And have turned up and 'winged' some shorter run events off little training.
My two best tips would be
- LOADS of CALF stretching. I find it's my calves that take the real battering and most prone to strains/injury.  Both the soleus muscle (the smaller one that goes lower down towards the ankle) and the main 'big' ones - thats 2 different stretches. (All my calf problems have been in the soleus muscle).
Run on trails and avoid the tarmac and roadside pavement where you can - those are hard on you and whilst you'd often not realise it, pavements ('sidewalk' in American) can often be canted to drain rain water to the road - which can give knee problems if not used to it (from experience!)

And make sure your run shoes are not knackered- another source of injury.

Staying injury free will be the only thing really stopping you, although you don't really have time to improve your time at all.

To be honest, i'm not certain you'll really gain much from training this close to an event now as you're more likely to just wear yourself out and get injured. If you already getting pain in your knees it's probably just going to get worse if you try and cram more mileage in.

Might be best to do just a few km a week to stay injury free and make sure you can definitely complete the event?

The training you can do in 4 weeks probably won't help with overall speed.  What you can do is prepare your body to avoid injury and for the aftermath.  Plenty of gradual distance increase and proper warm-up, stretching then cooling down would be my aim.

I consider myself decently fit, but never really done much running.  I have, however, over the last few months managed to get myself to a 5k in under 27 mins without being crippled with stiffness for the following few days.

i’m not certain you’ll really gain much from training this close to an event now as you’re more likely to just wear yourself out and get injured.

My thoughts too. In fact, I'd say that if you're struggling on descents then I'd avoid doing any running until you've sorted that. 

The training you can do in 4 weeks probably won’t help with overall speed. What you can do is prepare your body to avoid injury and for the aftermath. Plenty of gradual distance increase and proper warm-up, stretching then cooling down would be my aim.

Yeah this was my thinking, I also thought if I could ease the quad and knee pain during the run then I could go a bit quicker just for having run more rather than hobbled.

I guess I'm hoping with enough massage and stretching between short runs I can get the quads used to the motion again so they don't get so tight.

Off for a very light spin on the rollers this evening, will hopefully clear out some of the stiffness...

Well my experience of fell running many, many years ago would suggest that without a lot of training you can walk up the early steep bits, jog/walk the middle undulating bits and run downhill (carefully).

My Achilles can get tight after a run (normally about 5km+). Nothing a good calf/Achilles massage can't help relieve.

I'm no big runner but regularly run as a warm up in the gym. I have learnt to run more on my mid foot, also run with more shorter quicker steps. This seems to help relieve the impact of running.

If I was doing an off-road trail run for the first time, I'd be inclined to fast walk the climbs and run the rest.

Can you run with someone more experienced so they can pace you?

Good luck! I'm sure you will be in the top 50% of finisers.

IMO, don't try.

Like (probably more so than) me, you've easily got the aerobic fitness to do it, but your body isn't used to the impact. I did C25K a while ago with family. Especially early on, at the end of every run I wanted to do more, but my body wasn't use to that type of punishment. It's too easy to get injured.

I also don't see the attraction of the route on race day, the boggy bit at the top gets trashed (and people hurt in it) every year, runners don't seem to get the concept of trail maintenance, or care for other users, much either.

I'd much rather pay to do (bike or run) a new route in an area I don't know like the back of my hand anyway.

It’ll take a few weeks of adaptation to get used to running, you may need a couple of days between ‘runs’ simply to get over the aches. Make sure you warm-up steadily at the beginning of your run rather than ‘blasting’ from the off - jog the first km, consciously taking a shorter stride. Avoid over-striding, particularly on descents as it can be bad for your hamstrings. 

i can actually help with this .
I did my first  ever (well maybe since xc running club in school) 10k this evening i wasn't fast - took 69 miniutes!
I bought some £10 More Mile trail running shoes on sale a few months ago
ive done a  few 2-3 k runs over the last month or so, and can do 5 hrs on the bike pretty happily ,so i definitely have the fitness,
tonight after a day wfh i thought id give it a go and it wasn't too bad, thighs are a bit stiff and being honest it was a bit boring, but definitely doable

id definitely say do just one run a week, stretch well and go at a steady pace rather than pushing too hard

0.5-0.75km a day at Z2/3 (which is probably fast power walking or very slow jog) for 2 weeks

then 0.75-1km a day at Z3 (very slow jog) for the second 2 weeks

it should be tediously slow and feel pointless. you'll feel like you can run much further and faster. !don't!

your body should then be able to do the 10k without weeks of injury following because it'll have gotten somewhat used to moving quickly on two feet, every day

Get the fitness gains on a bike, not gonna happen running in that short period to an untrained individual. But if you ride - you can easily get the cardio gains in 4 weeks!

I did a bit over 10km at 3am a couple of months ago because it was raining and I couldn't sleep, had been a couple of years since I'd last done 10km, it wasn't fast, involved a bit of walking, and the stairs where an issue for couple of days, it's only 10km innit, you won't die, it will just be uncomfortable for a few days after

you did 8km yesterday, why won't you be able to 10km in 4 weeks 🤷‍♂️

Aren’t you a fairly decent cyclist (based on previous posts)? If so you’ll make 10k no issues. I remember a few years ago it was too icy to cycle so I went for a 10k run out of morbid curiosity to see how slow I’d be. First time I’d run in years, and it took me 53 min and it was by no means flat. and I wasn’t particularly fit. I appreciate that’s not fast, but I didn’t think it was all that bad

legs hurt for days after but I’d be confident I could run that distance tomorrow. If you are aerobically fit already, 10 k on 4 weeks should be  breeze

It's going to hurt, probably during but definitely after.  Your body will unlikely be used to the impact stresses of running and will protest.  However, doing some runs before the event isn't necessarily a bad thing if you take it easy and don't do too much, give yourself some recovery time and accept you will have aches and pains afterwards. If you do feel anything hurting particularly/acutely whilst out running I would knock it on the head for that one and find out what the issue is before getting back out there.  Things can go sour pretty quickly with stuff like this. Good luck.

Aren’t you a fairly decent cyclist (based on previous posts)?

No, I just talk a decent talk 😂 I can plod along all day on the bike it seems, not sure this really translates to running fitness.

I think the general consensus is what I suspected, I won't get any fitter in 4 weeks but can probably improve the general experience by getting my body used to the movement and impact. Just need to tread that fine line between 'getting used to it' and 'overdoing it'.

Plus I'm trying to take a few weeks off the bike so it's giving me something to do! 😎

Fitness sounds like it's not going to be the issue, but avoiding injury is going to be. Getting your legs ready to run that sort of distances with that sort of terrain is going to be difficult. I would start to jog very slowly at first just to see if you can run repeatedly over a few weeks. 4 weeks is not a long time to get yourself ready for a 10k, if I'm honest.

The thing that has transformed my experience of running in recent years is using the Jeff Galloway run-walk method. I use the run/walk setting on my Garmin watch to buzz at me on a 3 minutes run, 1 minute walk regime, and I stick to it on all my runs.

I was fine in my youth, but once I hit my 50s I used to give myself some sort of calf/knee/ankle injury every 3 months or so.  But I now 3-4 5k runs every week, and have done both a half and full marathon in the last year, all without any problems. I'm slow, but I really don't think I'm any slower than I would be if I ran continuously, I'm definitely faster than someone who can't run because he's allowing his legs to heal, and I'm happy being slow anyway. 

I think the general consensus is what I suspected, I won’t get any fitter in 4 weeks but can probably improve the general experience by getting my body used to the movement and impact.

Yeah, I was gonna say you should mainly be concerned with conditioning your body to running.

If you can do 5k then you can do 10k, assuming you have base fitness from riding and don't get an overuse injury on muscles not used to running.

The fact that it's a trail run should help prevent injury through repetitive impact IMO, just make sure you don't slip on some mud or trip up a rock 😉

walk up the early steep bits, jog/walk the middle undulating bits and run downhill (carefully).

I did wonder about pacing, I was treating it like a bike ride where you put the effort in for the hardest bits and back off on the easy bits, but maybe better walking the steep uphills and trying to jog the flats and downhills?

To be honest I think I'll get swept along with the experience and probably just try and walk/run through the whole event.

The fact that it’s a trail run should help prevent injury through repetitive impact IMO, just make sure you don’t slip on some mud or trip up a rock

I've called it a trail run but it's the 'gravel' equivalent of a trail run e.g. very smooth paths, tarmac, easy track, tarmac, easy track, muddy shuck for 500m, tarmac, forest track.

maybe better walking the steep uphills and trying to jog the flats and downhills?

Definitely do this. Experienced runners might well push the effort on the ups, but in your shoes I'd not be doing that at all.

Update: big day tomorrow.

The 'training' has generally been pretty successful, started every run with a 5-10 minute walk, short jog from 'official' start of the route to the base of the first climb which I break up with running and walking (it has four steep pitches which are the obvious places to walk). Have alternated between doing a shorter sort of 5km version of the route and have done the longer version twice. I would have liked to not just keep doing the same route but didn't really have the time to try anything different.

The big revelation and a huge bonus of giving running a go is that it has highlighted some deficiencies in my core that I wasn't aware of, all the typical running aches and pains (knees and hip flexors) tend to go away if I really work on my core stabilisers like my obliques etc. Mountain climbers/pallof presses and dead-bugs in the mornings have been very helpful.

Last week did the route in 1:07 and could probably have gone a wee bit harder. Unfortunately this obviously provoked the latest primary school lurgy to come to the fore so I've spent the week feeling sorry for myself and emptying my head of yellow mucus.

So the actual event might end up being a damp squib if I'm still a coldy mess, but I'm glad I've worked through the early runs, hopefully keep it up now at least once a week (to justify the shiny new shoes I treated myself to if nothing else 😂)

Good luck. If you're already kicking it out in 1:07 you'll smash it. Just focus on enjoying the atmosphere rather than giving yourself a coronary striving to set records.

Last week did the route in 1:07

That's amazing. Well done!  👍 Good luck for tomorrow, but honesty it doesn't sound like you need it!