Yes, I know I'm still injured. And no, I don't have lofty goals. But I signed up for the Louisiana Marathon back in January, almost a year before the race, so I am tentatively training for it.
The race is mid-January, so I have four months to get healthy and get into shape,
(If you don't know I've been treating a groin injury since May).
I spent September gradually building miles from zero to 40 per week (except the one beautiful-weather week when I accidentally ran 50 - oops) and continuing my stretch and strength exercises (my self-prescribed physical therapy). I told myself that if I remained at my baseline level of pain by the end of September, I'd go for the marathon.
The pain has not gone away, but it remains low level and easy to ignore: much like it was all last year before I ever saw a doctor. However, most of my running this month was slow and easy, and as recently as last week I experienced a sharp pain anyway. So I'm going to have to be reasonable. If I start feeling pain again when I add speed (assuming I still have speed...) I will have to back off and either quit or adjust goals, depending on the severity.
Speaking of goals, I have nothing exciting to report on this front. I just want to run a reasonable race, maybe a 3:30 or 3:20, and not be in pain. That's for now. If I start feeling amazing of course that will change. And if I start feeling horrible, that will change, too!
In closing please don't ever do anything I do. This is probably a stupid decision. Runners do some crazy things, what can I say?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Ha, ha! Yeah, probably most of us are not the ones to be doling out advice! Do as I say, not as I do should be our mantra!
ReplyDeleteI don't think this is stupid at all. Seems to me you might have a chronic thing going on that you are trying to manage while doing something you love (running). Your approach to it all seems v reasonable to me. Good luck!!!
ReplyDeleteOk this is good, I get to look forward to reading about more of your training and races. I hope that your hip thing just magically works itself out.
ReplyDeleteI am so hoping that your training goes well! Good luck!
ReplyDelete4 months is a still a long time for your groin injury to heal. My knee tendonitis started in March after the Little Rock Marathon and lasted until August. I had some weeks that I took off completely and some I ran just a few times a week. I could not imagine a time when I could run and not feel that annoying knee pain. It just slowly went away but it really just needed time. I hope your injury fades away quickly so you can enjoy some pain-free running again!
ReplyDeletemay I suggest some yoga ? it heals all......
ReplyDeletehopefully with the stretching/rehab, the injury will fade away.....
do you have plans to run the Mandeville half as a training run, maybe?
I signed up last year when it was cheap. I'm just running base miles after TOU, but thinking I may go and run it as a training run (undecided)
I sure hope people are smart enough to not take advice from us... I'd be in trouble for promoting my "how to run a marathon without any long runs" method.
ReplyDeleteI hope this mysterious pain can be figured out / managed / disappears altogether. Good that you're able to take a level-headed approach to the new round of training!