olympic triathlon 2 months before marathon???

kelsully
kelsully Posts: 1,008 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I am thinking through some training options for my 4th marathon that I will be running in October. By the 20 week training programs that are fairly typical for marathons I "should" have started running with the marathon in mind this past week, ended the week with an 8-10 mile run Sunday. I run between 7-10 miles every Sunday so this was not a huge issue UNTIL I developed a neuroma in my foot a few weeks back and have been told not to run for a few weeks by a sports PT.

During my time of no running I have been swimming and biking, as those activities do not aggravate the foot. For the first time in my life I am actually swimming and not just surviving swimming workouts so I am the most confident I have ever been in being able to complete the swim portion of a triathlon.

SO...I am looking for thoughts on this. I have made no decisions and am just pondering options. I have been told to ease back into mileage slowly as to not aggravate the foot. To me that means more swimming and biking for a while until the foot can handle all running again. If I am doing these multidisciplinary modes of training anyway I am thinking a sprint or Olympic triathlon in early Aug would be fun. When the triathlon is over I should be in good shape to dedicate the time to marathon training specifically and hopefully the foot will be all good.

Obviously I need to see how the foot handles the first few runs I attempt, one being today as soon as hubby gets home.. I just wonder if any one has any thoughts on this, has done something like this or can give me reason to or reasons not to try this. My end goal this year WAS sub 4 marathon...I understand that being a bit behind in my training might mean I have to modify that but the big goals is to BQ in the next few years so even if this year is not the sub 4 year but I learn things that help BQ happen then I am satisfied....Thanks in advance.

Replies

  • kelsully
    kelsully Posts: 1,008 Member
    bump
  • ThickMcRunFast
    ThickMcRunFast Posts: 22,511 Member
    It sounds like you already have a pretty good cardio base, so I see no problem in doing an oly distance en route to a marathon, especially if the tri is 2 months out from the race.

    I will race several times in the course of marathon training , it helps with speed (and with keeping pace while tired the next day). However, you'll have to sort of feel it out with the injury. Go slow, If you feel the foot getting worse, you might have to back off your pace and re-evaluate.
  • marathon64
    marathon64 Posts: 378 Member
    I can't really speak to this expect to say that I have known of more than one runner who started biking while recovering from a running injury and fell in love with Triathlons. So---I say that's an exciting option to have on the table for sure. The problem is marathon training is very consuming. If you were training for a half v. full I would see it as totally doable but might be more challenging finding the time and staying injury free if you are training for a full.

    There are groups on here with triathletes and you might look to join one of those to learn more. As I understand it there's a very nice learning curve doing triathlons. lots of tricks to learn around transitions, etc...

    Whatever you do I know you will be very badass

Categories