Sloane Brooks

I tried jumping back into running after my second kid and ended up with shin splints that sidelined me for weeks. Don't do that. Ease in with walking on the treadmill for 15 minutes and then add intervals of slow jogging. Mix in free weights for strength, like dumbbell rows or lunges, but start light. I found that doing mobility stretches at night helped my knees a ton. After a month, I could handle more without burnout. Pitfall: skipping rest days. I pushed too hard at first and felt exhausted with work and kids. Now I alternate days and feel steadier.

Hi Finley. Did the same and it bit me. I was shuffling laps by the floodlights behind the soccer fields and realized my shoes were ancient and the cold concrete made everything ache, then a week later a physio told me my stride was too long. I cut the stride, replaced the shoes, and it calmed down after a few weeks.

Hey Everett, Evening itself isn't the villain. It's the heart-rate spikes and body heat right before lights out. Apartment gyms closing at 10 is goofy, but you can work around it. Cut anything explosive after 8:30, keep it around RPE 6-7, and stop sets a couple reps short of failure. Do 30 easy minutes or a calm strength session and long exhale breathing and a cool rinse after. Kill bright lights on the way home and keep the room cool.

After getting rolled by a shore break once and losing my bag, I got weirdly redundant about water. Go at staffed hours, tell the guard you're nervous, bring two goggles, and always have an exit plan (roll to back or grab the wall). Start with breath and floats until you can recover three times in a row without a spike of panic. Evening sessions are fine if you pick the quiet corner and treat every drill as 'do it, recover, do it again'.