Road to Boston

How are things going?

Also, what was the average pace in the 17 mile run?

Oh, I'm so sad. Right after the 17 mile run, I had a day off and then I did a 9 mile run. Unfortunately, I had this twinge in my hip that I've had once before. I still finished the 9 miler and didn't feel all that bad. But several years ago, I had a similar pain in the hip joint, and I think it was bursitis. The more I ran on it, the worse it got - - and I ended up having to quit running for months.

So this time, I didn't want to let it get that out of hand. So the next day I did a short run. Still hurt.

I tried again. The pain is worse so I stopped running for a week.

Tried a 3 mile trail run and that was okay. Did a 4 mile trail run that went okay. The next day, bad pain again.

So I took another week off and only did elliptical and cycling. I'm unclear why those don't hurt and only running does because they all utilize the hip. It's something about the pounding. When the leg joint pounds into the socket, the pain can be sharp.

Today, I tried another 3 mile trail run. I felt good with no pain at all, but definitely felt "out of shape" on the cardio front (guess the elliptical and bike don't really transfer).

I am SO BUMMED because I really loved running the longer distances during the week. I felt fabulous on the cardio side and felt like my endurance was improving a lot. My 17 mile run didn't feel hard at all (while I was doing it). Unfortunately, I do suspect the 17 miler was the culprit. It was raining so I think I ran harder than usual (9:20's). Also, I was travelling and the sides of the road were more cambered than I normally would run on - - this is exactly how I got injured several years ago -- running 18 miles on cambered roads. I just thought I was in better shape this go around.

So, I'm not really thinking a fall marathon is in the cards now. Honestly, I wonder if I just can't run as much as I want to on a weekly basis. But a part of me thinks maybe I tried to do too much too fast. Maybe if I built up more slowly over a longer period of time . . .sigh.

Sad to say but this is what ended up driving me to triathlon even though my heart is much, much more in running. I just didn't have the injury issues.

So sorry to blab on and on. I just loved your recommendations and had a taste of the results. Now I feel I'm back at square one.

I actually do have a sensitivity to skewed surfaces as well. One time I got a pinched nerve in the lower back this way. The cure was to take it easy and jog lower mileage at slower paces for a month.

It is encouraging that the pain went away for you after some rest.

In your situation I would keep cross-training and jogging to probe the recovery progress, and gradually increase the mileage based on the body feedback until you are back to normal. The fitness will come back fast. But it still may be a good idea to wait until later to run the marathon.

Also, for a precaution, slower pace most days is better than faster pace. Aerobic development still happens almost the same, but injury risk is a whole lot less.

How are things going?

Thanks so much for checking in on me! I am FINALLY back to normal. My conditioning is not great, but I'm running pain free so that's something. I had pain through mid September so I was able to do some running and fill in the gaps with the elliptical and the bike. For the past couple of weeks, I've been able to run more and more . . .but "more and more" hasn't been all that much - - about 25 miles per week.

I finally feel able to say I'm recovered, and am about to attempt to do some real training now. I'm planning on running 5 miles per day, five days per week plus one longer run. I'm going to creep up slowly this time and see if I can get back to where I was . . . and I'm going to run trails a lot more than I was.

5 miles a day is great. You will maintain decent shape if you are able to do that 6 days a week, especially if you add some cross-training on top of that. No hurry increasing the mileage. Probably the trouble you had came from getting too excited about feeling good and increasing the mileage too fast. The problem is that in order for the mileage increase to be safe all of the subsystems of the body need to be ready for it. Sometimes one particularly strong subsystem starts telling you it can handle more and outshouts the others that are whimpering that they are not ready. Thus we always wait a little longer to increase even if it appears that we can handle more.

This time hold the same mileage for at least three weeks before increasing it again. General rule of thumb is that if you are visiting the mileage territory where you have not been before you need to be a lot more cautious.

Thank you so much for the encouragement and great advice. I'm going to proceed much more slowly this time. I agree with your assessment that too much, too fast was not my best move. I was excited and part of me did feel really great ;). I think with the much colder weather, my enthusiasm will be a bit diminished naturally, and I'll feel more willing to build slowly. Sadly, right now, a daily five is seeming like a lot. It will take time to rebuild I guess . . .thanks again for taking an interest. Your advice is very helpful.