I was supposed to do 27 km yesterday for my long distance run. After going successfully at 26 km the past two weekends, it shouldn’t be too difficult.
So I ran my usual path around Eur. Depending on where you go, going around this route would give you a good 15 – 20 km. I like going around this area as it’s normally not that many people around and there is a lake there which makes you feel tranquil as you go past fellow joggers.
Unlike the previous weeks since starting on my training, this time round it was full of people celebrating the carnevale – you’d see lots of young children wearing costumes, accompanied with their parents. There were so many of them and it started to get bothersome, especially with the number of kids scampering around, not looking where they were going.
Thinking quickly, I made a detour to the church nearby where the road was practically empty apart from the lone jogger or two.
Despite my feet feeling their usual pins and needles, I was feeling good. Moreover seeing that I was on a slow but steady pace made me feel extremely motivated. I even had an inner conversation with myself :
“Marina! You just did 10 km! Lets do another 10 km!”
“Oh wow! You just hit 20 km! Just 7 km more! You can do it!
As tired as I was, I was feeling really proud of myself especially when I think back about my half marathon training. But as soon as I hit 23 km, I suddenly felt a strong muscle pull in my soleus. Huh? Why?
It was so painful that I just couldn’t continue any more and had leave my goal premature. I even felt the sprain while hobbling to the main road where luckily Cart happened to be waiting nearby in his car and convinced me to stop and drove us home.
I felt so disappointed. It was only 4 km more. I was doing so good. Why is my body rebelling?
As soon as we reached home, I couldn’t even do my after running stretches. It was too uncomfortable. And all throughout the evening, I felt like an invalid – I couldn’t walk around without needing support. Not fun at all!
So all I could do was to try to ease the pain by puting an ice pack around my calf and then use a muscle rub some hours after that and went to bed with my compression socks on.
At this point of writing, my leg is feeling much better and I can walk properly now, although the pulled feeling is still there but I think it will ease completely within the day.
Nevertheless, this experience is rather disconcerting and Cart and I were hypothesising about what I did differently this time round :
- I didn’t wear my compression socks while running.
- I tried to go catch up at the traffic light by going slightly faster rather than running on the spot.
While I’m not that convinced that these changes made that much difference, now that I’m so deep in my training, I don’t want to take any more risks and instead I’ll take it as a learning experience.
Rather than feeling demoralised, all the more I feel like this is a challenge that I need to overcome. We’ve come so far and I really want to fight for this!
Sidenote : My next long run seems to coincide with a Duathlon event and it seems that part of their path is my usual jogging route. This could be a good thing. If they don’t block it off to non competitors, I could use it to my advantage. On the other hand, Cart can’t drive here in case something happens. We’ll see.
You may wish to supplement your stretching with rolling out your muscles, using self-myofacial release? I found it really helped when I was doing kettlebells
I’m notfamilliar with myofacial release. Reading online though, it seems that it is a massage directly on the problem area, so I will give it a try, also with a tennis ball 🙂
All the best, it hurts like a B at the beginning but it gets so good after.
I don’t want to knock your training plan because maybe it works for a lot of people..I don’t know..but not having any cut back weeks (where you can rest Inbetween building up mileage/kms in your long runs) is surely the problem here especially since you have been injured before. I would not personally do a plan that had me piling on mileage in the long runs without a step back week every two weeks. To me, it’s asking for injury. I don’t want to be too negative or seem like I’m picking on you it’s just my opinion from trying and failing in training many times. Next time look for a more conservative plan that will give you the time to build up miles and then rest so your body is more prepared for the long runs ahead. Hope you feel better soon!
Don’t worry, I’m not offended. In fact, I’m grateful that you shared your thoughts with me. Come on, it’s my first marathon so I’ve got a lot to learn, and you’re much more experienced than I am, so I’m open to any advice and criticisms 🙂
I followed the plan from Marathonrookie. It’s the same site which I used while training for the half marathon. Since it fit me really well when I was doing Roma Ostia 2013, I thought that the suggestion for the full marathon would fit me well too.
Looking back though, after going through and experiencing the plan, I would tweak it a little more. For this week, I’m going to cut back and rest. I sorely (accidental pun) need it!
I hope you feel better soon. But, if it’s a serious strain, I don’t imagine it’s something that’s going to heal in one day. Don’t push yourself too hard or you might not recover!
Thanks! That’s true though, I don’t want to be on a wheelchair!!!
By the way, I don’t know if you remember – but I wrote a post about a fun run in 2010 and we both said that we would NEVER participate in a 42 km run.
What on earth happened to us? Haha!
hope you are feeling better and able to continue with your training this week 🙂
jiayou rinaz! 😀
This week I will cut down and heal and focus getting stronger! 😀
Maybe – maybe – the ice cream on Saturday evening (and the added freezing cold…) was to blame! 🙂
Maybe! Also I wouldn’t stand still for a long time – not good for the back :\
you are really inspiring! I don’t really like to run, but when I run regularly, I feel really good. I only average about 3 miles at a time, though, I am small potatoes. Keep it up! Loved the photo of the rowers on the lake/river…
Aww thanks! I think you could do it too! A few years ago, I didn’t even think that I could go further than 2 km. I think the mind and body is an amazing instrument 🙂
By the way, Eur is a lovely place to be in, especially during spring when you could see the cherry blossom bloom from the trees. It’s so pretty!
don’t be so hard on yourself when you didn’t finish the training…i think you can do it ultimately. 🙂 go go go!!! 😀
Thanks! I’m still very motivated so that’s a good sign! Hehehe