Looking for Marathon training advice......again!

greenb

Looking for some advice from the experienced folks here. I've had a setback at a particularly bad time and am beginning to think I may not make it for my planned first marathon, DCM in October. Picked up an IT band injury two weeks ago and have been seeing PT regularly since. Was warned not to run for 6 weeks but stupidly, thinking I was feeling a lot better decided to try a short jog on Sunday last. 2 miles in feeling fine, 2.5 miles pain again and pulled up. Therapist was not very happy with me and says I've basically reset the clock and am not to run for another 6 weeks!!

Anyway my question: Is there a good plan I can jump into mid July when I (hopefully) restart, that will give me any chance of running DCM? Is it too late? By that time I won't have run in 8 weeks! I can try cycling in another week or two.

Some background for context: Running about 1 year. built up to average of 25-30 mpw, which I was doing for a couple of months before injury. Longest LSR 14 miles.

Looking for some hope to cling to!!

ncmc

I think you will still be ok greenb, most training plans are 18 weeks, so would be due to start at the end of June so that would only leave you 2 weeks out. For a lot of the novice training plans, they work of a base of 20 miles a week with a longest run of 6 miles, so even with the time out with injury, you are well ahead of that. Could you maybe cycle or swim to keep up your fitness levels without exacerbating your injury? I think with your base, 15-16 weeks would be plenty of time to train for the marathon, just don’t make the mistake of doing too much too soon, if you follow a plan like Hal Higdon 2

http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51138/Marathon-Novice-2-Training-Program

The third week has you doing 17 miles, so that should be achievable for you as long as you keep your fitness levels up. I followed that plan for DCM last year and had a great first marathon experience.

If you aren’t already part of it, I strongly advise you check out the DCM Novice thread over on the training logs forum. Loads of great advice and support over there.

greenb

Thanks NCMC, that's very encouraging.

I actually did post the same as above on the DCM novice thread and have recieved some good advice.....

I have been told by my physical therapist that cycling is also out for the next couple of weeks, so am going to try to force myself to the swimming pool (which I hate with a vengeance!:(). Anyway will try to keep my fitness up as best I can and see how I feel in July. I may see if I can follow your suggestion of HH novice2, (my original plan was for HH intermediate), so I will be revising my time goal down in any case. My therapist wants me to ease back into running very slowly even after the 6 weeks (ie. very short runs), so I may be taking a risk by starting back at 17miles/wk, but I'll see how it goes.

Thanks again.

greenb

BTW, , anybody know if there is any sort of rough rule of thumb as to what fitness level is lost per week out through injury. Does such a thing exist?

career_move

greenb wrote: »

BTW, , anybody know if there is any sort of rough rule of thumb as to what fitness level is lost per week out through injury. Does such a thing exist?

http://runnersconnect.net/running-injury-prevention/losing-running-fitness/

kerrylad1

I picked up the same injury as you from doing a run 3 days after my 1st marathon in Dublin last October.Please do not run for at least 6 to 8 weeks.I kept trying to run every few weeks thinking all was well,until 2 or 3 miles into a run and that horrible twinge returned.Did Limerick marathon on the may weekend and got some good advise from boards runner's,on post marathon running,and thankfully this time i'm back out running without any it band problem's.I jumpe'd on the bike for 50 minutes 5 times a week and it kept my fitness levels up some bit.