Marathon Update #3

Since my 18-miler I’ve been battling some shin problems. Last week, during a grueling 5 mile run, I made the decision to take a few days off to let my legs heal. I know it’s an overtraining issue – my poor little legs didn’t know what to do with a 46 mile week. Skipping runs was certainly a blow to my I-haven’t-missed-a-training-run-yet pride but it was a step-down week anyway and resting/recovery is what step-downs are for. I’ve learned from experience that at the very first sign of shin pain to back off; they’re not an injury you can run through. After three days of rest and a lot of ice packs and compression they felt much better and on Saturday I did a 5 mile test run which went just fine.

Sunday, my long run was only 13 miles. I went into the run feeling confident – after all, I had run 18 miles the previous week. I didn’t prepare for the run as well as I should have – I drank too much coffee that morning, was dehydrated, skipped breakfast and didn’t carb load like I normally do. About eight miles in I was reminded that it was still THIRTEEN miles, a half marathon, and I began to pay for my lack of preparedness. My heart rate was high, I was exhausted, my legs were dead…etc, etc, etc. But at least I didn’t have any shin problems…

 

 

1 thought on “Marathon Update #3”

  1. Good golly, girl. You run a half marathon for *practice*. I mean, my idea of working out is maybe doing a few crunches while I wait for an email to send.

    That being said, I just did the chapter on digestion and now I know all about why athletes carb load. (That and the chapter on muscles explains a lot). It makes sense!

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