Well if I can say one thing about this past week of training, I have learned that when everything you read and hear says to increase your mileage gradually, LISTEN to them!! I was definitely overly confident in my own personal fitness levels and had initially decided on a training program that was above my current abilities. I ran fourteen miles between Sunday and Monday and then an additional three on Wednesday. This third run was very uncomfortable and I was not able to run for even five minutes on Thursday. Friday was a scheduled rest day and I was forced to walk for thirty minutes again on Saturday. Today I walked for about forty five minutes. I have had severe pain my in my knees, shins and calves (only when attempting to run). After each exercise I have been applying ice to my legs for thirty minutes and taking ibuprofen to deal with some of the pain and swelling. I am not mentioning any of this to get pitty or make excuses for not training. I want any other beginners like me who read this blog to learn from my mistake and take it easy. The key is to build the miles slowly.
This is not the end of my training!! I still have nearly eighteen weeks until Cleveland which is plenty of time to complete enough base miles to finish the 26 miles 385 yards. If anything, this has acted as an eye opener for me and has taught me to listen to my body and to choose more appropriate training plans. This coming week I will continue to take it easy and begin to do some light jogging on Tuesday based on how my legs feel. I will also get on the bike and do my best to maintain my cardio without the impact on my legs. My new plan will consist of much fewer miles in the beginning with gradual increases and a fall back period every third week to rest my legs before the increase the following week. The key will be to get back to running and making conservative but consistent increases in mileage. Hopefully the legs are feeling better soon and I can get back to normal.
-bgw
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2 comments:
Have you been able to rework your training schedule? What's it looking like these days?
I have been walking alot but was able to run for 5 min yesterday and 10 this morning and it has been feeling progressivley better. I am going to get back on the treadmill tonight for a few minutes just to see how it feels. Tomorrow will be the same run/walk mix. With any luck, I will be able to jump into the beginner marathon training plan with only one week missing from my training. This means that I will be doing M=R, T=3, W=3, R=3, F=R, S=7??, Su=Cross. This will gradually increase week over week and will include a step back week every 3-4 weeks for recovery. I will have a long run of 20M according to this plan but may expand it slightly depending on how I progress. My plan for cleveland will be to cross the line. I truly think I will learn more about myself through the training than from the race itself with the idea being to build for Columbus. I just want to be somewhat conservative and a serious injury.
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