Marathon training modification?

bluefox9er

Hi Guys..i am training for my first Marathon , to take place on May 5th. I am using the Hal Higdon Novice 2 plan, and have so far made it to the end of week 10 ( please see attached image).

After my long run of 17 miles, I noticed a pain in my gluteus/hip, which presented it's self around mile 13 of the run.

I pushed through and completed my run, but felt pain in that area after.

The pain subsided almost completely after taking a combination of icing, ibuprofen and co-codomol , but came back once the effects of the pain killer wore off.

I am now about to enter week 11 ( 5 miles, 8 miles, 5 miles and 18 mile long 'run') to start tomorrow, but really do not want to make this pain any worse.

I am a novice runner, and am desperate to run my marathon, but now need to modify the training if I am to avoid making this injury even worse, but stand a chance of running on race day. There are 8 weeks before race day.

I ran my long run on saturday ( it is monday today), and spent the entire weekend and most of today resting and icing.

I would really appreciate any feedback as to how best to modify this schedule to accommodate for this injury ( I havn't taken any pain killers and my leg feels better than it did after I finished the long run).

I am hoping that it will take me no more than a week or a little longer to be recovered, but it's really too hard to tell right now.

Here is the training plan, of which week 11 starts tomorrow.




Hal Higdon Marathon 2 by Dipak49ers, on Flickr

dorianaldyn

I'm even less experienced than you are, but if I were in your position... lots of pain over the weekend, feeling generally OK now, but nervous and not wanting to make it worse, I'd probably do a 3 mile run tomorrow instead of 5 miles and see how that feels. If it felt ok, I'd probably do 5 or 6 instead of 7 and then if all still felt good, maybe 4 instead of 5 for the last midweek run - or maybe skip one of those midweek runs all together. If I was still feeling great, I'd probably still try to do a longer run over the weekend, but probably not more than a half marathon. If I wasn't feeling it, I'd skip the long run in an effort to actually heal rather than risk making it worse. One skipped long run won't ruin anything.

I hope you feel all back to normal really soon and this is just a tiny bump in the road!

schmenge55

Bummer. I assume you are doing things to keep the glute strong and active (i.e. clam shells, side leg lifts, etc.)? If not you should add those. I would try scaling the miles back but not neccessarily the intensity. You can occassionally split your long run and that might be a good idea for this next one even if you feel up to it. By split I mean run half the miles in the AM and ther other half later in the day. One of the main purposes of the long run is to build mitochondria in the legs and as long as the runs are in the same day that still happens.

I think you have a foam roll? Hitting the IT bands and the piriformis?

bluefox9er

I'm even less experienced than you are, but if I were in your position... lots of pain over the weekend, feeling generally OK now, but nervous and not wanting to make it worse, I'd probably do a 3 mile run tomorrow instead of 5 miles and see how that feels. If it felt ok, I'd probably do 5 or 6 instead of 7 and then if all still felt good, maybe 4 instead of 5 for the last midweek run - or maybe skip one of those midweek runs all together. If I was still feeling great, I'd probably still try to do a longer run over the weekend, but probably not more than a half marathon. If I wasn't feeling it, I'd skip the long run in an effort to actually heal rather than risk making it worse. One skipped long run won't ruin anything.

I hope you feel all back to normal really soon and this is just a tiny bump in the road!

Thanks, Dorian..I was thinking for sure about scaling down the mileage this week much as you suggested, as well as run it at a much, much slower pace. 18 miles is unchartered waters for me..I could have easily hit 18 on saturday if I didn't get the pain as my legs felt ok.

I really hope this is a minor hiccup, last year I was training for a half marathon and had to withdraw because of injury :-(

ThickMcRunFast

Sounds like it might be a hip flexor problem (hip/glute pain), and if that is the case, I would scale back. Sucks to miss a long run, but a fully strained hip flexor will keep you out of the game for months. If it is hip flexor, the most likely cause is weak glutes, which happens to runners a lot.

Advice of my PT- do glute strengthening exercises, stretch the hips twice a day, and you can jog slowly, but stop as soon as the pain shows up.

redredy9

i had some hip flexor issues when training for my first marathonlast fall. I backed my long run back down to 13 and started getting massages after my long runs. After scaling back for one week followed by psot-long run massages for 2 additional weeks I was back and luckily did not have anymore issues.

Have you tried getting a massage within 24-48 hours of your long run? It did wonders for me and I am definately planning to incorporate it into my training again once my milage starts creeping back up.

I am wishing you a speedy recovery.

sarahc001

Hip flexor is in front. If you have a hip flexor problem you have trouble bringing your knee up. Just take a little time, roll it with a foam roller, ice after your run, and bide your time until the KT tape arrives. You will get better, and you will be fine if you allow the injury to heal. If you go out too soon or too hard, you could re-injure it. You have PLENTY of time before your marathon, and I know injuries are scary, but you will be fine!

EDIT: Use common sense when you come back. When I did my first 20, I got crazy at mile 18 and sprinted the last two miles. Within 30 minutes I could not lift my left knee and I had to physically lift my leg into and out of my car. I had a hip flexor injury. I took a couple of days off, taped it up every time I went for a run, shortened my stride, slowed down, and didn't run any hills. It took about two weeks to feel absolutely normal with tape and three to feel normal without tape.

As you know my most recent injury was to my foot after my 24 miler 4 weeks ago. This time I was stupid. I went to the doctor and waited until I was completely 100% before running (two weeks ago.) I went out slowly intending to do 7 miles easy, (and here's the stupid part) and it felt great, so I kept running faster...at mile 6 I felt a sudden terrible twinge in my foot. I dropped down my pace by 2min/mile and by 30 minutes after the run could hardly walk. Today I did a super easy 4 miles, pain free. 5 days left until the marathon, and I feel like things are going great. I guess we will see.

But my point is that if you take a little time off and slow it down/reduce mileage, tape and support it when you do run, ice/roll/etc. the area in question, you should be fine in no time. If you push to keep training at your normal volume, maybe not. I'm hoping for the best where you are concerned :-)

tkillion810

Did you have a good mileage base when you started the training plan? I'm wondering if you had a big jump in mile too quickly. Weak hips and glutes are common in runners. Definitely spend some time training them. Clam shells, monster walks, stretches, etc. My other suggestion is to take some time off - maybe a full week. Really give it a chance to recover. If after a week off, see how a short run feels. If you continue to have pain after resting, it might be time to see the doc.