This should be the time that I talk about my week 2 of training in review but I’ve got other things to talk about now: being an injured runner.
It’s time for me to practice what I preach and I’ll be honest it is easier said than done that is for sure. The first two weeks of marathon training have not exactly gone very smoothly.
During the first week, my foot was kind of flaring up but I wasn’t really worried about it because it never bothered me while running. It was just something I was going to deal with and hope that it went away…and it did during week 2. With the new week, I got a new issue to deal with, the hamstring.
Wednesday’s workout called for 9 miles total with 5 x 1 mile repeats @ 5:36 descending to 5:27. It was a good workout and I felt strong. No red flags or anything. Later in the day, however, my left hamstring felt a little tight. I didn’t think much about it…just figured it was some soreness from the speed work.
Thursday morning was a different story though, it was real tight and real sore. Something was definitely not right. I decided to take my rest day on Thursday instead of Sunday and hoped it would go away.
Friday rolled around and it felt better so I decided to do my run as scheduled. I could still feel the hammy but it was nothing too bad. The workout was an 8 mile tempo run with 6 @ 6:00 per mile. I did a bad job of scheduling the workload for the week as I needed a second easy day in between the speed and tempo…but that learning process is for another post.
During the run I could definitely feel a slight pulling pretty much the entire time. In the back of my head I knew where this was heading but I was not ready to admit it yet. I told myself lets see how Saturday goes. Once again, I hoped lets see if it just takes care of itself…with more running. That makes sense, right?
With the hammy and a late night on Friday, I decided to just run with Lindsey. I probably should have started resting the injury before Saturday but the run on Saturday confirmed what I already knew. I need to take some time off and try and get this thing healthy before it becomes an issue with my plans and goals.
My one week self imposed rest period started yesterday on Sunday and I plan to take it through next Sunday which will give me a full seven days of no running and very little cross training. I have a list of exercises that I found searching the internet for ways to deal with a strained/pulled hamstring. The basic takeaway was if you are not careful with it the issue will stick around for a long time. So I am going to be very careful with this thing as the training cycle is still early that this should hopefully be just a bump in the road.
If everything goes as planned my leg will be ready to run in one week and starting next Monday I will enter a “recovery” week as scheduled and then resume the plan as normal two weeks from now. I am confident that slowing down now and taking some time away will help stay in front of the injury and come April I will be ready to race.
Questions: Have you had any injuries to deal with? How did you do with downtime? Adjustment to expectations?
Glenn