19 days to Belfast Marathon Advice required

willowthewisp

Though I have a slight injury This is not a medical advice question. I have a pulled muscle/strain at the bottom of my calf.
Now I am starting the third last week of training ahead of the Belfast Marathon on may 3rd.
Last Sunday I completed my longest run a 22 miler (felt pretty good after it).
This weeekend my long run is 18 Miles. With a 9,6,5, 4 midweek.
The following weekend its 12 miles. with a series of short runs midweek.
The following weekend it’s the Marathon with the usual build up runs ahead of that.

Before the 22 miler I'd already done a 17, and a 19 mile run.

My question is that obviously I need 2/3 days rest to aid recovery, but at this stage I am worried about missing out on any of my runs.
Should I rest completely and then hit the 18 miles at the weekend, or is missing miles at this stage a big no no.
Little bit frustrated as its my first Marathon attempt and training had been going pretty well.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Many Thanks

ecoli

willowthewisp wrote: »

Though I have a slight injury This is not a medical advice question. I have a pulled muscle/strain at the bottom of my calf.
Now I am starting the third last week of training ahead of the Belfast Marathon on may 3rd.
Last Sunday I completed my longest run a 22 miler (felt pretty good after it).
This weeekend my long run is 18 Miles. With a 9,6,5, 4 midweek.
The following weekend its 12 miles. with a series of short runs midweek.
The following weekend it’s the Marathon with the usual build up runs ahead of that.

Before the 22 miler I'd already done a 17, and a 19 mile run.

My question is that obviously I need 2/3 days rest to aid recovery, but at this stage I am worried about missing out on any of my runs.
Should I rest completely and then hit the 18 miles at the weekend, or is missing miles at this stage a big no no.
Little bit frustrated as its my first Marathon attempt and training had been going pretty well.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Many Thanks

Had a similar situation before my goal race (granted this was a half marathon not a full) i cut out the running and did all my training on the bike and in the pool. At this stage the work is in there now it is just maintenance as you should be in you taper stage.
Its better to rest up and have the calf 100% than risk it completely going between now and the race (or even worse during)

Hope this helps

Krusty_Clown

Unless that calf heals, you wont be running the marathon at all, so that should be the priority. The work is mostly done at this stage, and the remaining three weeks is about keeping up the endurance and speed stimulus, without doing all the work. Switching to the bike and pool (as ecoli suggested) will allow you to keep up some level of effort, while taking the pressure off the injury (and it may even help with the healing process). If you're not already having the injury attended to, you should get this done as soon as possible. Good luck.

willowthewisp

Thanks for the advice guys.
Will take it on board.

macinalli

A couple of points from experience with calf strains. The first is that other forms of exercise is the way to go, but I'd also be a bit careful on the bike. This can also stress your calf so take it easy when doing it - no racing up hills or anything like that!

When you do get back running, do lots of stretches afterwards - far more than you would usually do. Without this you will be very stiff after your 1st runs back which will mean you can't do as much as you'd like.

The last point would be to consider a longish run a week before the marathon. A taper is aimed at letting the body recover from the training but you'll have a bit of an 'enforced' taper cos of the strain. As such, if you did a longish run 7-10 days before the marathon, you should recover quite quickly. It'd also be a good confidence boost before the big day. Nothing excessive, just a bit longer than what a taper would usually involve. Good luck!