Is running on grass good or bad?

Great for breaking/spraining ankles. Not so good otherwise unless it is some manicured grass.

I ran a couple of races high in HS - not good.

It's bad. Stick to the roads/trails.

Deadman Running wrote:

I ran a couple of races high in HS - not good.

Wrong, it enhanced your performance. 4-year ban.

I haven't personally had trouble with grass as a surface, IMO it's a lot better than concrete.

Depends on the length. Short and well kept is pretty good. I run about 60% of my mileage on grass(mediumish length around a school perimeter). It's a double edged sword. Your lower legs get stronger, but if the grass is longer, there is more foot movement and sometimes I feel like my knees are not always on track at certain times. Also compared to trails and roads, my average mile time can be anywhere from 10-20 seconds slower. Someone mentioned rolling an ankle. Never have done it on grass myself. I even run at night on grass and never had issues. Both times it has happened were on trail roots. As long as you are familiar with the lines you run, everything will be alright.

I still think trails are the optimal choice, but if you are like me and don't have any nearby, grass is a decent choice, but I would mix it up.

good for short, barefoot runs if the terrain is even and well-kept. long grass is a no-go

i do mile repeats for XC in long grass with poor footing. its more representative of an xc course than the track. our miles can be like 15 sec/mi slower.

worst poster wrote:

Great for breaking/spraining ankles. Not so good otherwise unless it is some manicured grass.

I've never broken or stained my ankle in nearly 30 yrs running on grass and used to run up the fells every week

Of course you can strain your ankle but it's not the worst injury

guess it all depends on what you want to do and the condition of the grass field.

Trying to do some really fast reps over a clumpy uncut field, not sure you'll accomplish the goal of the workout. Doing the same thing around a soccer pitch- fine.

It's bad if you have an unstable knee.

Rarely do I find grass worth running on that isn't a soccer field of some sort and looping around for more than 20 minutes really stinks

Good. If you start young and continue through HS and college (versus sidewalks, asphalt) you will strengthen all the ligaments and tendons in the lower extremities over time and avoid the injuries people are mentioning. Problem is, most people do not do this, and then step on one clump of grass, and twist their ankle. It's a no-brainer for longevity and healthy running.

good, duh, protects joints keeps you from getting as sore with high mileage, road running has even been said to kill speed

It's not very good for the grass

Medium length grass makes me lift my knees higher and I get a great workout doing strides on it. What I do is comb over the paths I'll be running and take note of any holes or misshaped clumps prior to running on it.

Salazar has the boys run on grass a lot.

Depends. For the most part it is good because it is softer than pavement. It can be bad because its uneven surface can aggravate some things. For example I have posterior tibial tendinitis and running on an uneven surface with it would be much worse than running on even surface.

Keep it on the 'crete!

5 OK wrote:

Is running on grass good or bad?

I find I can't pass a pizza restaurant or a donut shop when running on grass. If you're doing more of a fartlek workout that's not too bad, but it's terrible on a pace run.