You may remember that I mentioned a few time that my shin bothered me and I had to cut down on my treadmill exercise & dog walks. I was very frustrated about that. When the last flare up calmed down, I realized I cannot get past 4 mph on the treadmill. Ten minutes of that speed and the shin would start aching again. I tried to be less "thumpy" on the treadmill and tried flexing my feet more and yay!, it seems to be working.

Also, I started a little bit of jogging. Ok, I call it jogging, you serious runners would call it a pathetic shuffle and if you watched me, I think you would even give me a quarter so I stop and you don't have to look at it again - I combine walking a 3.9 mph with intervals of jogging at 4.6 mph. It seems a bit disappointing after almost 3 months on the treadmill, but I have learned to be a patient chick. Today, I spent 60 minutes on the treadmill and out of was 20 minutes jogging (broken down into 4 x 5 minute intervals). That made me quite happy.

I have a question about pulse. I am worried that my pulse is a bit too high after I finish the "jogging" interval. I am 49, so my pulse should be (when doing cardio) around 128, but mine gets a lot higher. When I finish the jogging interval, my pulse is often 151, although it starts falling down to low 140's fairly quickly. I am pushing myself too much? SHould I rather do shorter intervals, let's say 2 minutes, but more frequently, till my heart adjusts?
Thank you in advance.

Can't comment on the shins, except to say congrats for figuring out your body, but as for the heart rate - I'm 20 and my heart frequently goes up to around 200 when working out! I asked the Dr. and it turns out high heartbeats just run in my family, as long as it comes down quickly after you stop exercising hard, it's nothing to worry about in and of itself. That said, there is evidence that keeping your heart rate in lower ranges for longer periods of time is in fact more effective for weight loss - muscle building zone vs. weight loss zone for heart rate, you can find info if you google it. Good luck

Congrats on running Tomato .... I'm an extremely slow runner too but hey at least we're out there running/jogging....

As for your heart rate if you are not light headed or dizzy and it goes down quickly once you start walking, it think it's great and you're burning a LOT of calories by doing those intervals....

I'm 51 and my heart rate often goes up that high too, but I feel fine and it goes down quickly, so I never give it a second thought...

There is no reason a healthy person your age cant get their hr that high. In fact many people might argue that on occasion you should get it higher (intervals and the like). Truthfully most HR formulas are pretty much full of unless you have had your true HRmax and true HRmin (sleeping) measured.

I cant walk that fast either. I can jog, or run or walk slower but between 3.7 and 4.5 is no mans land for me on the tread. Makes my shins burn like an SOB.

Thank you, dear chicks. Yes, I feel fine (I would have stopped if I felt dizzy or anything) - that is, other than being beet-red in face and sweat dripping off in buckets, there is nothing wrong.

Ilene, I ran for full 15 minutes this morning (uninterrupted). I had time for only 35 minutes (before work) and I need a long warm-up, it takes me 10 minutes to get to my usual speed (if I don't allow myself the long warm up, the shin starts bothering me). I am thinking of doing a little bit of treadmill in the mornings now, as opposed to a bigger session every other day, since I have a lot of gardening to do.

I may be slow but I am persistant! Hah! :-)

.... Great attitude...

You might try setting the treadmill at a slight incline--even just 2%. I think that would help with the shins problem.

Hi Barbara,
My treadmill is on 2% incline all the time. I think I aggravated my shin really badly when I tried to do serious incline (starting at 3%) and increasing by 1% each minute, up to 9% (but I think at that time, I should have kept at a slower speed - I have a tendency to overdo things in my enthusiasm).

Tomato, I've always suffered from excruciating shin splints. (I started running at the age of 12. Never figured out what to do about it until this year. I'm 43! )
Now when I get on the treadmill, I walk on my heels for a good two minutes before starting my run. My shins will start to "burn" with the warm-up. And I do the same after my run. I can't believe the difference! I'm practically shin splint free now!

Good luck with the jogging!!

If I figure out how to not turn red when exercising, I'll let you know.

Thank you, ellis! I will definitely try that (first thing tomorrow morning). :-)
With the jogging, my shins (or shin, it's always only the right one) is fine, but now my thighs are killing me. It's always something, isn't it? But I figure as long as I have little aches and pains, I'm alive. I won't feel anything if I am dead.

Re the red face .... you know, just yesterday, I bought a Fitness magazine (at least I think that's what it's called, it was an impulse buy, I grabbed it while at the checkout at a grocery store) and they talk about this woman who started to run marathons at the age of 51. There was a picture of other contestants (mature age ladies) and I am thinking, they all look so civilized .... I, on the other hand, sweat so badly after 45 minutes on the treadmill that you would think I fell into a pool. Yeah, I figured out what I am .... I am a SWEATER!
(pun intended)

I love that I'm not alone in that, Tomato. Yesterday after I got off the treadmill at the gym and walked into the weight room, everyone looked at me like I was some sort of freak of nature. The looks I got were a combination of fear and concern.

Yes, try the heel thing. It really does warm up your shins. I always had one shin that was far worse than the other. It got so bad that I started doing a sort of compensatory walk, and next thing I knew, if felt as though both my ankles were sprained!
Your thighs... those'll get better.

We're definitely not dead, girl. Keep up the good work!!