3 ½ days until the London marathon!
Last few days of preparation before the race day… Three and a half days and counting…
How are you guys preparing for your race? How did you find the training overall the last 16 weeks.
This has been my first marathon I have trained for and has been a big learning curve for me. Before my training I ran up to 10km’s no more than 2 times weekly and then spent the rest of my time staying fit in the gym with a variety of high intensity weights and cardiovascular training. Up until the 15 mile mark I was happily building up the mileage weekly with a short run and a speed session during the week with 2 strength sessions in the gym sometimes taking on Dan’s challenging programmes… All was going brilliantly until I started to notice the outside of my left knee the last 15 minutes of my 15 mile run. It calmed down very quickly with ice and ibuprofen and I was able to carry on with my speed and weights sessions that week. It came to the 16.5 mile run the following weekend and my run swiftly came to a halt after 6 miles when I stopped to look at the map on my phone and I literally couldn’t take another running stride because of the pain. Feeling very sorry for myself and frustrated I hobbled home. I had the dreaded ITB syndrome… All you patients I see I completely understand what you’re going through….
Lucky for me I have some fantastic colleagues here at Physio4life two of which had the pleasure in sticking needles in me and trigger pointing my ITB. The treatment Victoria and Faye gave me massively helped along with reinforcing all the advice that we give to you: ice, anti-inflammatories, rest and YES! THE oh so painful foam roller…. I now have a love hate relationship with my foam roller, but they really do work and if I wanted to get back on track to be able to do this marathon I knew I had to endure the pain. I took 2 weeks off with swimming and strength sessions and my knee felt great… However I tried a run home from work (2miles) and ended up walking the second half home due to the pain in my left knee. I had hit an all time low, as I think all athletes do with injuries… I was feeling very sorry for myself… Regardless I dug in deep and persevered for another week of resting, strength and swimming to maintain my fitness. Fortunate for me I was able to get through 8 miles with only twinges towards the end of my run a week after this. My knee was sore after but I foam rolled and iced took a couple of ibuprofen and the pain was gone by that evening. From here I continued my routine with just a sprint session (no short run and no hills as downhill is a big NO NO for ITBS) and then my long runs at the weekend completely 20 miles 3 and a half weeks ago. I have to admit my knee was definitely sore at the end, but I knew I had given myself enough time for recovery before the marathon. Last week I did 13 miles, which felt absolutely amazing after the slog of 20 miles and made me decide I am definitely a half marathon girl not a full! This week I have cut right down and done one 30 minute run and 2 gentle gym sessions ensuring that I don’t get any muscle soreness before the BIG DAY! ARGHH!
My reasoning for doing this marathon is to be able to empathise with my patients on a further level but to also raise money for a great charity: Arthritis Research UK. Any support would be much appreciated and is very relevant to our scope of practice http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JadeBroughton
See any of you running there!! Good Luck!!