I'm going to try this. I need to get up off the couch. I'll start tonight.

After six years of no running, I joined a marathon training program (not Team in Training) last year to run the OC Marathon. Both my wife and I ended up finishing the marathon, which was quite an accomplishment!

I'm only really starting from scratch as far as running goes. We've been swimming all summer and we walk a lot all year. Plus I'm up and about with the kids a lot. Even when I was dancing 20+ hours a week running was still difficult to start. It seems that any of the muscles I've ever used are opposite from the muscles you need to run.

We're walking (briskly!) on the days we aren't scheduled to run, so I suppose we'll just see if we feel like jogging on those days. Today my shins are a bit splinty, so walking it is!

Please please please let your shins heal before running again. You will get stress fractures if you're not careful.

Hah! Stress fractures are no match for me! I've run with worse. :p

I'm kidding (well I really have run with worse, but I paid the price with super long healing time), my shins really aren't that bad. I'm upping the achilles stretching and toe taps though.

How do you prevent/minimize shin splints? That's been my major issue. They don't seem interested in permitting me to make any progress.

Wear good shoes and be aware of the mileage you're putting on them. Many beginning runners are used to measuring the life of shoes in time and outer wear rather than distance. You probably shouldn't be running in shoes with more than a few hundred miles on them (and maybe less if, like me, you are significantly overweight).

Try to run on dirt surfaces or rubberized tracks while building up a regular regimen of running. The impact is much less. Don't try to run through shin splints, they'll just get worse. Stretch a lot.

I would say consider building up to it a bit with a fair of amount of time on an eliptical machine. This, to a degree, put your legs through the range of motion for running without the impact. Part of the process is slowly acclimating your legs to the beating they take.

If they are persistent, you might see an orthopedist about orthotic inserts for your shoes. Lani has these and found they helped quite a bit (once she got them from a non-idiot doctor).

I do not have access to an eliptical and my shoes are new. Alas. I just have to keep taking it slow, I guess. Maybe some day I'll be able to actually do something.

Don't you work for the University of Washington (or am I misremembering)? Does that still come with access to the IAC? I know that is a bit of a trek, but it probably has ellipticals in the gym, and the pool would also provide opportunity for low-impact water jogging (which looks stupid but is good exercise).

But yeah, ultimately it is just a case of go slow and built up durability. Press it every once in a while but don't be afraid to pull back, just don't stop or give up altogether.

I'm not available at a time when it's reasonable to use the IAC and it costs money I don't have. Home treadmill is paid off, available 24/7 without waiting, and comes without public mocking. The treadmill has a program which gradually cycles from slow walk to jog in 10 second intervals that I've been alternating with steady mid-speed walk for a much longer duration. I guess that's my version of the couch to 5K, except it will take me 10 years to get to the 5K point. I added a minute to the cycling one yesterday (still too short to specify) and it burned like hell for the last minute, but it doesn't hurt to walk today, which it usually does if I've overdone it.