Marathon Training - Having to take a week off

Agree w/ Rick, however can you do any crosstraining in the interim to keep the aerobic fitness levels up?  I have heard that people have done water running, rollerblading, ellipticals, and even cycling when unable to run w/ pretty good results.  Your results may vary, but something to consider.

Agreed... In retrospect, I wish I had done some swimming last week, but I really didn't feel good enough to do anything until around Thursday and I went camping on the Appalacian Trail Friday morning for the weekend with some buddies. So i guess you could say carrying a pack around and treking for wood could be considered cross training.

Update: I was feeling pretty good tonight so I decided to go for a short jog, I took it really easy for ~ 1.75 miles and felt pretty good... maybe 90%. I'll be going to the doc tomorrow afternoon, if the doc clears me for training and if it feels good, I'll try 3-4 miles tomorrow and then ramp up accordingly this week. And I'll try to work some swims in on the off days to get the blood flowing and help keep my loose.

- Brian

Take no chances. Let it heal completely. I missed two run seasons because I kept running on an ankle injury in prep for a marathon.

CP2K

I'm leaning on the side of caution... however, I would think that a muscle pull would be different than an ankle/knee/joint etc injury, no? I mean as far as doing long term damage. The fact that i'm able to run without any pain and it didn't get sore after running (well, more sore anyway, there' still that residual slight soreness) is a good sign. I'm hoping that over the next few weeks Ill be able to ramp back up to my training schedule in time for my 20 miler in three weeks... Wonder what the doc will say.

- Brian

I took almost 2 weeks of in my marathon training last summer due to inflammation in my connective tissue and I was slow but fine for my marathon. The fact that you have already done a 19 mile run shows that you will most likely be ok to complete the distance. Now, you may not be as fast as you hoped, but the boat has already sailed on that if you have that bad of a muscle pull....

Get a sports/deep tissue massage.  I had issues with my calfs when I first started and tore my left Solues and when I pulled my left one again two years later I got a massage.  Something about lessions, knots, etc from the original injury was causing me lots of problems.  Since then my calf(s) have been injury free.

Funny Scotto...

I don't know if I can live without my weekly dose of hopscotch

So I went to the doc today. He said that the injury is pretty minor and that based on his review (stretching this way and that way, does this hurt, does that hurt, how did it happen, etc), I should be ok for x-training and easy running this week, then try to ramp back up to my marathon plan next week. He said that I likely 'strained' 5 or 10% of my quad muscle fibers and that they will take up to 6 weeks to fully recover. Until then, don't do anything that causes it to hurt, and don't stretch it to the point of pain. No sprinting/speed work, no hills for at least 2 more weeks. Take 600-800mg of Ibuprofin 2x daily, and ice it after use.

So I got on the stationary bike for 30 mins of spinning and then ran home from the gym (~ 1.5 miles). I plan on swimming tomorrow, then depending on how it feels, running ~ 5-7 miles on Wednesday.

Thanks for the feedback, I'll keep posting as I recover if for nothing else than a reference for the next person to play kickball in the middle of marathon training

- Brian

Edited by bkfitz 2007-08-27 8:17 PM