The Marathon Decision

After I crossed the finish line at the Bridge Half Marathon, a lot of thoughts ran through my mind. First: "Hell YES! A new PR!" but that was quickly overshadowed by: "Ouch. Why is my IT-band hurting after months of being completely fine?"

I spent the rest of the day frustrated, icing my knee on // off to get ahead of the inflammation. I stretched and rolled on some BioFreeze, too. Lots of you suggested massage via foam roller, which I do religiously, but never seems to help much.

Then I started to have flashbacks to 2010. The last time I dealt with this injury in acute-mode, except on my other leg. I took 11+ weeks off and had to resort to aqua jogging, rigorous physical therapy, and even cortisone therapy (not injection, but STILL!). Even when I felt "better" it was a long road back rife with walk breaks and all sorts of disappointing workouts.

When the pain continued into the next morning, I had pretty much decided that doing a cycle of marathon training -- even if I didn't get injured -- followed by a 26.2 race might be a recipe for disaster.

See me gritting my teeth here?


I guess for now I'm letting my marathon sticker expire.

I've reached a point in my running "career" where I'd rather be happy than hurting. If that means less aggressive or impressive goals, so be it. I'd rather not be the person constantly canceling out on training runs, making appointments to see specialists, or talking about the best KT taping methods.

And strangely enough, after I had clicked yes to submit my change of registration for Wineglass -- my IT band mysteriously got better. Coincidence is more likely than what I'm thinking was the whole pain-thing being some sort of divine sign. Still, I think half marathons are my sweet spot.

I haven't chosen a training plan, but I know the following worked for my last cycle.

• 4 days/week running schedule instead of 5 or 6
• Speedwork -- 800 repeats and mile repeats, mostly
• Tempo workouts -- running at or faster than race pace
• Strength training -- mostly kettlebells and squats
• YOGA -- less for the athletic aspect, more for the stretching

Here's where I think I can improve:

• More cross-training, I want one day in the pool/week, if possible
• More variety -- definitely adding at-home spinning to the routine, maybe every other week
• Longer tempo workouts -- increase from 5 to 8 being the longest
• Longer long runs -- I'd like to do a couple 15-16 mile runs in the next cycle
• More practice -- perhaps a test race is in order?
• More watch runs -- I hate it, but running occasionally w/ a watch helped me get faster

I'm starting a training log on this site soon. Once I pick my half plan (which will likely be similar to the last go-around, just longer than 8 weeks), probably. As you can see, my goal is 1:40 (7:37/mile) . . . how realistic that is, I'm not sure. But I'm going to do my best to try.

So, more about training soon! And tomorrow I'll write about some diet plans. Well, not actually dieting, you know the drill. Also, some of you asked what I do between training cycles -- I could write about it, but in short -- I just do some unstructured running. Get my legs moving and think about what's next.

Are you chasing any big goals for an upcoming race? How do you tweak your training from event to event?

Pssst: For a review of the Brooks Pure Flow (that I'm wearing in the race photos), just visit this post. Again -- totally not sponsored -- they held up great for my race. Very light + comfortable.

Like what you just read? You can subscribe to the feed of these posts or follow us on Twitter or Facebook to be the first to know what the (never home)makers are up to. And we’ll love you forever!