Louisville Derby Festival Marathon Training Week #12 and Injury Update

After incurring an injury during my 20-mile training run two Saturdays ago I had to sit out an important week of training last week, and most of this week as well. But, I got some positive(ish) news from the doctor on Monday. The good news is the injury is nothing major—just an ITB flare-up and general over-use. I had severe ITBS last year and had to stop running completely for almost two months and then start from scratch by walking on the treadmill and slowly adding minutes of running, which caused me to have to sit out both spring and fall marathon seasons because of the injury and the long recovery time. I was not about to let it get to that point this time; hence the low mileage last week and visit to the doc to find out what’s going on. I was very apprehensive going into the appointment. I was afraid that it was going to be like last time, with the doc saying “no running for x number of weeks and the marathon is out of the question.” I was surprised when the doc said that with a little bit of rest and less intense training over the next few weeks, I should still be able to manage the marathon on race day! I was certainly glad to hear it, but I’m still apprehensive. Maintaining the level of fitness I need to BQ without actually running at that level is going to be pretty hard. I am missing two good weeks of hard training right here at the end of the training cycle, essentially going into the marathon with a 4-5 week taper. Not ideal at all. So, truth be told, I am totally freaking out here. But, I am trying really hard to stay positive. The doctor is very confident that with my current level of fitness and training history, I can still hit race pace on marathon day as long as I keep up the cross-training and core work, don’t over-do the running, and pace myself during the race. So, if he is optimistic, I am trying to be optimistic also.

So, the remainder of the training plan I've been following is kind of being thrown out the window. I missed a ten-mile tempo and a long run last week—not the end of the world. But my workouts this week are up in the air, and I’ll also for sure have to miss my last 20-miler, as the doc recommended not running more than 10 miles at a time until race day. Since nothing hurts when I do speed work, the doc said it would be fine to try it—but stop if anything starts bothering me—but I haven’t decided yet if I want to take the risk. Distance is what seems to be the culprit in my case—not speed—but from here until April 30 I will be second-guessing and worrying about every single thing I do. Not a good place to be! So far this week I have stuck to non-impact (spin and swim and core) and may continue that through the rest of the week—I’ll just have to see how I feel.

FWIW, here is how last week went, post-injury:

Sunday – Rest

This was supposed to be a cross-training day since I had rested the Friday prior (Saturday was the Papa John’s Ten-Miler/20 mile training run during which I became injured), but because of the injury I opted to completely rest. After church, I spent several hours propped up on the couch with ice.

Monday – Cross-train

Elliptical (30 min.)

30 min. strength/core

I was wishy-washy, but decided to hop on the elliptical to see how things felt. I was on the elliptical for a very short period, but things felt fine. When I got home my husband and I did a Jillian Michaels DVD, and none of the strength moves bothered me. My calf, hamstring, and knee were very sore throughout the day/evening, though.

Tuesday – Speed work

2 x 1600 (400 RI) w/ 1 mi warm-up and .5 mi cooldown

This was probably not my smartest move, but since neither the elliptical nor the strength workout had caused any additional problems, I decided to try my speed workout and see what happened. (Keep in mind that throughout the entire training cycle, even if I would have aches and pains during/after the long runs, I never hurt during or after the speed workouts or even the longer tempo runs (I mean, besides the usual “this is hard and it sucks” kind of pain)). I would do the warmup and see how things felt. If there was any pain in the knee or calf, then I wouldn’t do the workout. I went into it fully expecting something to start hurting, but during the warm up everything felt fine—it actually felt really good to be running. So I decided to attempt the 1600s (which were supposed to be at a 6:51 pace). I had to do them on the road, because the track team was using the track. I had hoped to do the repeats on the softer surface, but oh well. The first 1600 I took it kind of easy, because  I was afraid of what might happen if I went hard—it ended with a 7:xx pace (my watch wasn’t set up correctly for the splits and I ended up having to include the 400 RI in the split, which came out to a 7:40 overall pace). The second interval was a little long (I thought I had fixed my watch but it still wasn’t set correctly, and I accidentally ran .08 over) but came in at a 6:54 pace. I was feeling pretty good but I psyched myself out mentally—I kept expecting something to hurt, and I was afraid I was going to injure myself even more and completely sabotage the rest of my training. So I called it quits and did a .5 mi cooldown.

There is nothing worse than being injured. For me, the whole unknown aspect is what gets me. I always question whether I am actually injured, or if I’m just sore and need a longer recovery period. I knew in my heart that something wasn’t right with my leg—it should not have hurt like it did during the 20-miler—but I also wanted to talk myself out of believing I was injured so I could keep running. And then when you’re out there during speed intervals just a few days after feeling so much pain during a long run, and everything seems just fine—it only adds to the confusion and doubt of whether you are really injured. So I ended up being very frustrated with myself for cutting the workout short…even though later that evening my whole leg was throbbing from my heel to my butt, and when my husband attempted to massage my calf I almost bitch-slapped him. So I was mad at myself—or, maybe, just really mad at being injured, and taking it out on myself—but I also no longer had doubts that I was truly injured and should probably go to the doctor before it got worse. Yet, I still held off on calling the doctor.

Wednesday – Spin (30 min)

I had a lot of housework to catch up on and didn’t want my day to be chopped up with being at home in the morning, going to the pool at mid-day (open swim doesn’t start until 11:00 a.m.), then coming back home to get ready for work, so instead of swimming I hopped on the bike first thing and did a quick 30 minute spin. (I know I should go longer on the bike, but my butt can’t take it! I really need a gel seat.) I completed my housework and spent the rest of the afternoon until leaving for work propped up with ice.

Thursday  - ???

I can’t remember what I did this day. I may have done another 30-minute spin. I had been holding out hope that maybe things would feel better by Thursday and I could try my ten-mile tempo, but it was obvious that a) my leg did not feel better and b) it probably wasn’t going to get any better without some sort of action (or inaction, if the “action” was to be rest). So I finally called the doctor and set up an appointment for first thing Monday morning, which was the soonest I could get in.

In the meantime, I had to come up with a plan for how to go about compensating for the tempo run I was missing, and what to do about the 15-mile run I had on the schedule for the weekend. All of a sudden—and I have no idea how/why this popped into my head or why I hadn’t thought of it before—I remembered a blogger that I follow, The Hungry Runner Girl, talking about doing the majority of her training for one of her marathons in the pool while she was injured. Pool running! I did some research, and decided to try it the next day in place of my tempo. (If you HRG's post on pool running, just ignore the fact that she says she would never again attempt a marathon after five weeks of pool running. I'm thinking positive here!)

Friday  - Pool running (1 hour)

I plan to do a full post on pool running after I’ve had the opportunity to do it a few more times, but here’s a quick description of how my first attempt went.

I had to borrow a buoy belt from the pool, and it was way too big. Pulled as tight as it would go, I still could have pulled it at least an inch or more tighter to even begin to fit snugly. But I had to work with what was there, and I was just grateful there was one there to use until I could get to the store to get my own (or borrow Keith’s as it turned out). I felt bad about taking up an entire lane for this task, especially since I planned to be there so long, but oh well. I went to the last lane and took over the back corner in the deep end. I really had no idea what I was doing, so the first few minutes were awkward. I wasn’t quite sure if I should be moving my knees straight up and down, or trying to mimic more the actual motion of running; but I recalled reading that I should drive my knee up and my heel down, so I went with the straight up and down motion. Same thing with my arms—I wasn’t sure if I should pump them up-and-down or front-to-back like I do when I run. I opted to go for the more natural front-to-back motion and it seemed to work fine. I would move around a little bit, so I went back and forth or made little circles as I “ran.” I had to share a lane for a bit and it was hard to stay confined in such a small area, but it worked okay. I kept thinking that it didn’t seem like I was getting a very good workout, but about 45 minutes in I started to feel red in the face and noticed I was breathing harder. I think it took me that long to really get the movements down, find a rhythm, and pick up a quick cadence. I would have liked to have stayed in longer than one hour, but I was going out of town and didn’t have any more time to spare. When I got out of the pool my legs felt like jelly! So I'm hoping I got more of a workout than I realized.

I have done more research and found some actual workouts for pool running, and I plan to pool run a few times weekly over the next four weeks. I will report back how it goes!

Saturday – Rest

I was out of town this day at my niece’s birthday party and even if I had wanted to run or cross-train would not have had the opportunity, so it worked out that I wasn’t ready to run yet and had cross-trained five days in a row—I did not feel bad at all about taking a rest day. My kids and I had a great time with family and I got stocked up on lots of niece-and-nephew kisses!!

With the birthday girl!

Sunday – short run/spin

6 easy miles at an 8:30 pace

30 min. spin

I went back and forth over whether to run on Sunday or not. I really wanted to run, but without having talked to the doctor yet I wasn’t sure if I should or not. And if I did run, I wasn’t sure what type of run I should try. Try for the 15 miles at a really easy pace? Go for the ten-mile tempo I’d missed on Thursday? In the end, I was too nervous about further injury to do anything except go out for some easy miles and see how it felt. I had no expectations whatsoever and was prepared to pull the plug after just one mile if need be. During the first mile my heel was sore, but that got better. Nothing was necessarily painful during the run, but it still didn’t feel 100% right. I decided to cut the run short at just 6 miles because I could tell that if I stayed out much longer my knee or calf would probably start to hurt, and I just didn’t want to risk it.

Once I got home, I hopped on the bike and did a 30-minute spin to get more cardio in.

Trying to maintain fitness while simultaneously trying to heal an injury and not sustain any other injury is a fine line to walk. I am really nervous about how it's going to go, and worried that I will make the wrong choices. All I can do at this point is keep trying, and hope for the best on race day. Positive thoughts and healing vibes sent my way will be most appreciated!