Illness right before a marathon
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FL_Hiker
Posts: 919 Member
Hi y’all,
I’ve been training for my marathon for several months now, I never skipped a training day even in the rain! It means so much to me to finish this thing, it will be my very first marathon. I took off training the week of Christmas to go up to the mountains, I didn’t run since I was afraid of slipping on ice or something while up there plus no trails.. and as soon as I came back home from the trip had a 103 fever and off the charts heart rate, went to the doctor and I tested positive for influenza strand A. The doctor told me not to run at all this week, and that I won’t feel better for several more days (that was yesterday night). The doctor also gave me Tamaflu, which she said should shorten the flu. Today my fever already broke and I feel MUCH better, although still weak. My marathon is January 27th. I’ve been following Hal Higdons novice 1 plan, I repeated several weeks since I had extra time, and before Christmas break I finished the 20 miler and felt easy and strong. I planned on repeating the 20 miler this week, but don’t know if that will happen (or if I even should occurring to the doctor). Should I just start back up on the 2 week taper next week? Or should I go back and do some longer milers before the race next week and forget the taper to build back some endurance since I won’t have ran for 2 weeks? This race really means a lot to me to finish, I’ve been training so hard 🙁. Would love to hear from some experienced runners if you have had this happen before and what you would do in my shoes!
Thanks for your help!
I’ve been training for my marathon for several months now, I never skipped a training day even in the rain! It means so much to me to finish this thing, it will be my very first marathon. I took off training the week of Christmas to go up to the mountains, I didn’t run since I was afraid of slipping on ice or something while up there plus no trails.. and as soon as I came back home from the trip had a 103 fever and off the charts heart rate, went to the doctor and I tested positive for influenza strand A. The doctor told me not to run at all this week, and that I won’t feel better for several more days (that was yesterday night). The doctor also gave me Tamaflu, which she said should shorten the flu. Today my fever already broke and I feel MUCH better, although still weak. My marathon is January 27th. I’ve been following Hal Higdons novice 1 plan, I repeated several weeks since I had extra time, and before Christmas break I finished the 20 miler and felt easy and strong. I planned on repeating the 20 miler this week, but don’t know if that will happen (or if I even should occurring to the doctor). Should I just start back up on the 2 week taper next week? Or should I go back and do some longer milers before the race next week and forget the taper to build back some endurance since I won’t have ran for 2 weeks? This race really means a lot to me to finish, I’ve been training so hard 🙁. Would love to hear from some experienced runners if you have had this happen before and what you would do in my shoes!
Thanks for your help!
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Replies
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A marathon training plan is like a battle plan; it needs to be altered in the face of reality while being executed.
Your reality is that you got the flu. The best thing you can do for your marathon performance is get over the flu. That means get enough rest, drink enough fluids, and don't spend the energy that you need to fight the flu virus on a long run. Your body only has so much energy to do stuff, and right now it needs most of that energy just to work on getting better.
The point of a taper is to back of the really hard work and allow your body to rest and heal up all the minor abuses you didn't even notice because they were there all the time. If you rest well while recovering from the flu, that will also give you some of the benefits of a taper. Then, as you are able to run, run a little. Run as your body allows, not what the training plans says. It will seem like it's not enough. That's okay. If you run 2 miles instead of 4, and 5 miles instead of 12, you'll still be running and reminding your body of what it's like to run. Then go out on race day, and run the first 20 miles so easy that it feels like you aren't working at all. You'll appreciate that when you get to mile 23 or so.
You got a 20 mile run in. If you can run 20 miles, you can run a marathon. The Europeans believe 30K (18.6 miles) is long enough to train for a marathon. Trust that they're right, and that you'll be able to go the distance on race day. FWIW, my longest training run before Boston 2018 was 18.8 miles. The entire training cycle was an exercise in recovery from injury and base building, and I never got up to 20 miles. But I crossed the finish line under my own power on race day. It can be done, even with training that seems like it's not enough.4 -
I'm I understand this correctly you are a week ahead? The taper should start 3 weeks out (according to this plan). If that is true I suggest making a small modification and restart at week 16 but with less distance. Maybe cut each run by 1-3 miles and take it very easy.
I agree with MobyCarp. You've done 20 so you've done the hard work.
Good luck.1 -
I also agree that you've done all your big miles, so you're good to go.
I'd wait till the weekend and see if you feel up to 12 miles or not.
If the answer is not, then don't worry about it.2 -
Thank you for all the replies, appreciated the insight from some really experienced runners! I feel a bit more confident now and assured (and less sick too!)
Thanks again 😊1
