Last week was my peak week of marathon training. I did my 32km run on Sunday after a fairly grumpy 55km bike ride the day before where I was goaded into sprinting into the wind and aggravated my hip. Being both grumpy and extremely busy I skipped the run off the bike. So I didn't quite make all my scheduled runs, but five out of six wasn't bad.
This week is an 'easy' week. I ran 8km on Monday and did 35 minutes of intervals last night. Tonight I'm supposed to be running 60 minutes of hills and tomorrow I'm down for 12km. The Grape Ride is on Saturday - a 101km bike ride, and then on Sunday I'm supposed to run 23km.
Here's the thing though. I'm thinking about skipping tonight's run. My hip still hasn't settled from Saturday and the intervals didn't help it. There's a pain down the top of my right quad that I know is hip-related, and I'm conscious I'm starting to avoid putting too much weight on that leg when I'm standing, which is something I do when my hip starts to go.
The arch of my right foot is still achy and I don't want it to deteriorate. Plus now there's a bit of a pain developing down the inside of my left ankle. Quite frankly, I feel a little like I'm falling apart.
I HATE missing scheduled workouts, particularly my loved Wednesday hill runs. However a programme is an 'ideal scenario', right? It's something written at a certain point in time which assumes nothing will go wrong enroute. A programme isn't flexible. A programme is a list of things to do. You can't tell a programme that you're having a bad day, or that your knee hurts, or that you're just too busy. You can't tell a programme that you're tired.
So I figure, as much as I hate skipping runs, this one missed run isn't going to kill my marathon. On the other hand, not listening to my body and going out there and running anyway might. Imagine if I ran tonight and was in agony tomorrow? How stupid would I feel?
Ironically I'm feeling sore but not tired. Even so, there's a part of me that would like to just go home and rest and have a shot at feeling good when I run tomorrow. Plus, I want to have a good ride on Saturday.
Oh, and buying new shoes this close to the marathon? Bad idea. They're just another pair of the Adidas shoes I always buy, but getting them was just another stressor to add to the mix. They're the same size as usual but they feel tighter. At least I know I can take them back, and they looked great on video - no heel rollover whatsoever.
So I will go home, drink a glass of wine, enjoy time with Hamish and the cats and try not to spend the evening second-guessing myself. I might even start packing for our South Island holiday so that I'm not running round like crazy on Friday morning.
I need to remember that I know myself well enough by now to know that I'm doing the right thing not running tonight. I just haven't quite worked out how to stop beating myself up about it yet!
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4 comments:
Pip,
Hang in there girl!
You won't lose fitness if you stop exercising for 2 WEEKS so skipping one run or 5 runs isn't going to hurt you and might actually HELP you. Your training program is quite rigorous. I think I do 50 miles (slowly!) with much less training than you're doing for a marathon.
Sometimes I can train and train and train without upping my steroids much but then it catches up with me in the form of: wanting to drink too much booze, bad attitude, aching muscles and bones, exhaustion and lethargy toward training. I'm not saying that you need to up your steroids but telling you of my experience.
It's most important that you enjoy your training so do what you need to do to enjoy it! Try not to be so hard on yourself, you're doing great. A little time off is good for you, after all, rest is when your muscles regenerate and get stronger.
You are doing awesome, keep up the good work!
I think you've come quite a long way in the listening to your body stakes and that's a VERY GOOD THING! I hope you had a thoroughly enjoyable evening and that your run tonight will be so much better for it:)
I think you should look at it more like you're adding an extra recovery to your schedule rather than you're skipping a run. You know how to push yourself in a workout - now you just have to "push harder" in recovery. Beating yourself up about it is contraindicated. :D Have a great weekend!
Sounds like that was a fun race and a good result given the amount of riding you have been doing. Enjoy the holiday. Will you be in Queenstown? A run around the lake edge would be supurb.
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