What Went Wrong
I started base building mileage for the San Antonio marathon mid June. Through the summer I ran many slow miles on soft surfaces and had not issues. No signs of injury. I was happy and had a positive outlook on the upcoming race. A couple of months ago I decided it was time to step things up. I figured if I didn’t do some speed work and more road miles I risked a slow, painful marathon.
Turns out that was not a good idea. Almost immediately I started having hamstring/ knee issues on any run longer than 6 miles (which is most runs during peak marathon). My pace improved like I wanted it to but the pain got worse. I convinced myself that if I could just push until a little longer the reduced mileage during taper would take care of the hamstring/knee issues. I was wrong. For some reason the taper actually made my issues worse.
Lessons I’ve learned. (1)If I want to run a slow Ultra on a trail I can do it, my body can take long, slow and soft. (2) Six months of high mileage is too long, I should not have trained so long for a marathon. Something is bound to go wrong with a training cycle that is that long (3) Don’t mix speed, hard surfaces and super high mileage. Even though I need to run some miles on the road, I should still do most of my miles on the gravel. Because that is what my body likes.
I am bummed that I am not running a marathon this season. This season’s marathon was about either BQing or PRing not just finishing. In my current physical state I know I can’t do either, so I will just be running what I can, what feels good, until I am healed and can start thinking about racing 26.2 again. And try my best to not make the same mistakes again.
Filed under: Running Blog
