Hip pain and running ...advice please

[GrimmaTheNome]

I started 'running' this summer. Only a couple of miles, not fast, initially flat canal towpath but now its too squishy and cold, somewhat non-flat pavement. I feel a lot fitter for it but I'm getting pain in one of my hip joints. I love walking so I don't want to bugger up my joints!

So... do I need to:
a) get new shoes
b) get advice on gait
c) lose weight (overweight, not obese)
d) lose age (51) !!
e) take miracle supplements
f) find a more joint-friendly exercise which provides the same sort of cardio-vascular workout. Walking just doesn't do it; swimming doesn't do it (though I like both - don't get the same intensity and takes longer)
g) any other suggestions?

thanks!

Get your gait checked and make sure your shoes are correct for your running style. My daughter's hip and knee pain when running have been helped tremendously by wearing some orthotic insoles a physio made for her, expensive but worth every penny.

Thanks! Hope I'm not just over the hill. I didn't have this problem a couple of years back when I was doing the same, in the same shoes, maybe just lucky then.

The soles and footbed of the shoes can deteriorate, with time and wear so it could be them causing the problem even if they look OK. DD changes hers every year.

MrsW - I doubt it - it really is only a couple of miles and I started it walk/run/walk gradually.

For some odd reason one of the 3 or 4 shops in the next village is a specialist running shoe shop which I've never been in but it says they do gait checking, so I guess I'll see what they have to say.

Meanwhile, I am at the mental image of Howard's mum running.

I don't see any mention of your stretching regime, Grimma.

You are, of course, doing a warm up, a stretch, the run, a cool down and a stretch, aintcha?

Are you sure it's the joint causing the pain, and not the muscles round the joint? I get muscular pains round my hip area when I am building up mileage, which go away again as my body becomes accumstomed to it.

I have to admit I've never done anything by way of warmup (other than chasing up and down stairs half a dozen or more times in the course of getting DD out the door in the morning, and when it was the canal walking to it)

I don't think its muscular pain - it feels different to that. Even if it was, the asymmetry would presumably suggest there's a gait issue. It occurs to me that one thing that's changed in the last couple of years is that the big toe on the opposite foot is a bit stiff now- not bad but I suppose it could have an effect.

It could be:

your hip
your lower back
your sacroiliac joint
your symphysis pubis joint
muscle tightness
muscle weakness
arthritis
loose body
referred pain from your gut
as well as all the things you listed
or a bunch of other stuff

Go and see your GP, ask for a physio referral.

Don't give up running, impact exercise is great for your bone health. But, see someone who can make a diagnosis to fix your hip, and show you how to stretch before you bugger yourself up. That being a professhnul term.