Beth Baker, a running coach in Seattle, Washington, ranks surfaces hierarchically: Concrete is the worst, adopted by asphalt. Running on hard-packed filth is right, because it’s received simply sufficient give to reduce the blows towards your poor knees. On surfaces softer than that, it will get tough. Running in sand is simpler on the physique in some methods and more durable in others. The speedy impression of slapping your ft towards a tough slab is lessened, however then you definitely’re pushing off from a shifting, unstable floor.
“You have complete range of motion in the sand,” Baker says. “There’s more opportunity for injury because your muscles are getting lengthened quicker. The older you get, it turns out, your body doesn’t like that as much.”
Take it sluggish and regular if you first begin working on the seashore, Baker says. Try to start out near the water the place the sand is firmer, then work your manner as much as looser sand.
“If you just go balls-to-the-wall on loose sand, it’s not going to be comfortable,” Baker says. “You have to go a lot slower and just be nicer to yourself, because it’s not going to be the same.”
Also, whereas it may be extra obvious on some seashores than others, your working floor is sure to be slanted barely towards the water. That means your gait might be a bit off kilter, with every foot on barely completely different elevation. Baker advises retracing your steps on a seashore run to even out the expertise. So when you run a method up the seashore, plan to make it a spherical journey. And when you solely see one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.
