[criss]

I've been relatively active for about eleven months, and I've lost about 65 pounds in the process. I usually do all of my activity in the gym- weights, elliptical, etc- but have decided to cancel my gym membership shortly and explore outdoor running and other activities to keep me active. Two days ago, I tried my first bout of outdoor running. I was at a school track and only ran a mile (albeit my first time running) and had to stop after my first mile, not because of muscles protesting or even being too out of breath, but I had terrible, terrible pain in my ears, jaw, and head. It felt like a nasty earache/toothache, truthfully. I couldn't talk, I couldn't even drink water. I just sat down and waited for it to fade. Within five minutes, the pain was mostly gone.

My friend suggested it was due to the weather. It was about 50ish degrees, and we live in the south, so my body isn't used to exercise in colder temperatures. Maybe it was my earplugs from my mp3 player? Or something else? I was really annoyed by this pain because I was curious to see my limit of running the first time and this halted my progress.

Has anyone else experienced this before? Any ideas?

[pink sparkle]

You're probably holding your jaw area tense. When I first started running, I had the same pain and then once I learned to relax my jaw while running, the pain went away. I know it sounds (and looks) dumb but try running with your mouth slightly open next time and see if that helps.

[Trolsk]

I live in Sweden, Scandinavia, where it is quite cold and I recognize this symptom.

I've also felt a pain in my jaw after running outdoors, and I think that's because you sort of run "harder", you know, and the bumps get much rougher and so your body collides with the ground in a harder way.

Sorry, I'm not so good at English but I hope you'll understand what I'm saying... I've at least found that running in the forest, and not on asphalt, is better. The ground there is much softer and therefore softer to land on