Week 7 of training for the New Jersey Marathon was disappointing. But Week 8 was even worse…ugh, how did I get to this point?
I’ve worked really hard with my training, but I needed to take a step back this week. These aches and pains are starting to concern me. But all hope is not lost, thank goodness!
I’m joining HoHo and Wendy for the Weekly Wrap – it’s always great to see what my fellow running/fitness friends are up to! I’m also joining Courtney for her Weekly Training Recap linkup and Marcia, Patty, and Erika for Tuesdays on the Run!
Weekly Wrap: Training Struggles, Wedding Events, and Bierfest
Let me just get it out of the way: I didn’t run my 16-mile long run this weekend. I just couldn’t bear to do it. The last half of the week had heavy rain every day and I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed when it comes to marathon training with all these aches and pains I’ve been feeling. I guess I talked myself out of going out there.
On top of that, I recently read 2 blog posts that had me wondering: am I overtraining? Judy’s article on 5 Signs You Need to Rest and Laura’s article on Know When to Walk Away, Know When to Run gave me a lot to think about. Some of my runs lately have felt a bit more sluggish than usual. My sleep patterns seem to be out of whack. And again, the knee pain, the shoulder pain, the foot pain. I have to runfess that I’m not foam rolling enough, I’m not being aggressive enough about prehab. When I look back at my training log, I had 2 weeks where I had a 5 mile run on Friday and a long run (12 or 16 miles) on Saturday. That definitely didn’t help matters so I’ll make sure that avoid that in the future. I also think that maybe I need to do a little less barre and a little more yoga.
So I have some things I plan to tweak going forward. Can someone force me to foam roll though? I just don’t spend enough time on it. What do you do to make it a regular routine?
Wedding Planning Fun and Bierfest
But on a brighter note, this past weekend was fun and really busy! On Saturday morning, we went to an Open House at our wedding venue – that’s right, we finally have a venue! One of their caterers hosted the event and we were able to try their food and meet some of their partner vendors. It was really exciting to talk to the florist and taste some cake! And Bret had the opportunity to see the entire reception area, including the bridal and groom suites. It’s all starting to feel so much more real!
Wedding fun continued on Sunday when my sister and I went to a Bridal Show in King of Prussia. I have to admit that I found the ordeal extremely overwhelming! There were so many people and so many tables to visit – and some of the vendors were really aggressive while others couldn’t care less about what was going on. Fortunately, I got to meet some interesting vendors and I not only won a free boudoir session (definitely dreading that one), I won free custom Save-the-Dates! Not bad for $5 admission!
The last fun event we had was Bierfest on Saturday afternoon. It’s a celebration of German beers and it’s pretty pricey admission but you get to drink a LOT of beer for 70 bucks. Bret and his friends went last year and had a blast and this was my first time. It was a pretty cool event with some great live music and good food. I definitely had too many samples though….haha!
Us at Bierfest!Workouts for the Week:
Monday 2/19: We recently got President’s Day back as a regular work day, but unfortunately yoga class was canceled for the holiday. I moved my easy run from Thursday to Monday since I had a happy hour to attend that evening. This run went pretty well! I focused on my posture to help ease the shoulder pain and it seemed to help. I was glad that I was able to finish strong!
Tuesday 2/20: One of my OG running buddies from work wanted to go for a run with me after work, along with another coworker. They ran 3 and ran up the Art Museum steps, while I focused on my 5-mile fartlek run: 5 minutes hard, 3 minutes easy, 4 minutes hard, 3 minutes easy, 3 minutes hard, 2 minutes easy, 2 minutes hard, 1 minute easy, 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy….haha! It was definitely a challenging workout and it was humid, crowded on the trail, and about 70 degrees outside (yuck!!), but I was able to get it done!
Wednesday 2/21: No workouts. I originally was signed up to go to yoga/barre fusion class, but the weather was so nice and Bret and I decided to go out to dinner. I also wanted to give my body a break.
Thursday 2/22: No workouts.
Friday 2/23: I had a hair appointment, so no morning barre class. It was raining all day long so I took the day as a rest day; otherwise, I would have used the day for my 16-mile long run.
Saturday 2/24: We had a very long, busy day but Bret and I did get out for 4 miles. I was worried that it would be rainy but we lucked out and had a bit of sunshine! I felt pretty good on this run, but my knees hurt like hell after. Sigh.
Sunday 2/25: No workouts. I kept debating whether I wanted to run 16 miles on Sunday, but with more pouring rain, I decided to pass. It just didn’t feel like the right thing to do. I keep hoping that I made the right decision.
Bret and I after our Saturday RunWeek 8 Report Card
Total Miles for the Week: 14.0
Total Training Miles for NJ Marathon: 181.93
Obviously, you can tell that I’m not happy with the way that this past week of training went. I do believe I did the right thing by pulling back, but I still need to do more foam rolling and stretches. Knee pain always points to other problems. Maybe my quads and/or hamstrings are too tight. Maybe my hips are still too weak. Man, I don’t know…but I need to get to the bottom of it quickly. Fortunately, time is on my side so I will do my best to turn things around before it’s too late. This week gets a C since I completely skipped the long run.
How was your past week of training and running? Do you think rest was the right move or a copout?
That is tough! Marathon training is walking that fine line between enough stress to improve vs the line of injury. I think pulling back was the right decision and hopefully with the extra rest you’ll feel better this week!
Thanks a lot, Laura!
Sorry to hear about your aches and pains! It’s good to rest and listen to your body. But I’m with you on the foam rolling though, I need to do it. Hope things turn around and are better soon!
Thanks a lot, Sherry! The foam roller really makes a difference!
I do think extra rest is beneficial, especially when I’m juggling a lot. I just don’t have it mentally sometimes, and I know my body would appreciate the rest. I feel the pressure if I skip a workout, but I don’t regret the extra rest.
Yeah, I used to feel really super guilty about rest days but I’m learning that in the long run it’s the right thing to do!
I am sorry to hear you had a tough week! I think you made the right choice to scale back and rest.
I would totally skip foam rolling also, so I sometimes squeeze it in before a run so I don’t forget it after, or do it at night when watching TV. I really should foam roll more though!
It seems like you can never foam roll enough! I’ve been doing my best to make it more of a habit!
Sorry you had such a tough week! I do think the weather this time of year mentally makes it tough to push through a long run. I don’t know how many days/ week you are running or the details of your training, but maybe cutting back on a day and throwing in a cross training day would be an idea? My best marathon was the one where I trained using Crossfit conditioning and strength training 1-2 days/week. I still ran 4 days but my max mileage was 38 miles one week with an 18 mile long run. That was it.
I”m not at all qualified to give advice but I just know that my body can’t handle high mileage. Just putting it out there.
Sorry you had such a tough week! I do think the weather this time of year mentally makes it tough to push through a long run. I don’t know how many days/ week you are running or the details of your training, but maybe cutting back on a day and throwing in a cross training day would be an idea? My best marathon was the one where I trained using Crossfit conditioning and strength training 1-2 days/week. I still ran 4 days but my max mileage was 38 miles one week with an 18 mile long run. That was it.
I”m not at all qualified to give advice but I just know that my body can’t handle high mileage. Just putting it out there.
I think rest was the right decision, especially if your sleep was out of whack…that makes it that much harder to recover. I hope you can figure out what’s going on with your knee soon!
Sorry to hear about your pain and aches you should take rest, listen to your body be fit and then again try your level best and achieve your goal. The marathon training is really tough sometimes it goes very smoothly and sometimes it becomes tough but the only thing is to be positive and start again. Best wishes!
I’m sorry to hear you are still having issues with aches and pains. I know I struggle when my sleep is lacking. Add other factors, and it goes downhill very quickly. You were wise to listen to your body and skip that long run. I hope you can get some clarity soon. It sounds like the wedding planning is coming along well. That must make you happy! Thanks for linking.
Ugh…sorry you had such a tough week! It’s always a crap shoot with aches/pains/skipping runs/throwing the training off….but I do believe you have to go with your gut instinct. It sounds like you knew rest was necessary (probably not just in a physical sense either).
I’m so sorry you had such a tough week. Sounds like taking the extra time to rest is what your body needed. I hope things turn around for you this week.
Sounds like you’re making great progress with your wedding plans! So fun!
Sorry you had a rough week! As for the foam rolling, it works best for me if I do it at the same time every day. Whenever I try to add a new habit I like to make it the first thing I do, if possible, in the morning. Do you think you could wake up like 10 minutes earlier and do it right away, even if in your pajamas? Ive been doing it before some of my strength workouts and runs so that I know I wont skip it afterwards.
Wedding planning is so much fun. I love all your smiles this week. We all need a step back week sometimes no sweat
I’m sorry to hear that you’re struggling (but thanks for linking to my post!). I know I have a hard time not completing scheduled runs, but sometimes you really are better off for it — and you’re still 2 months out. Which is enough time to visit with a PT or a chiropractor or sports dr? Just sayin’. If you get in there early enough you can still race — but otherwise, you may end up just running — and running in pain. And I know that from painful experience!
I’m pretty sure none of us foam roll enough — most of the time I try to do it right after a run or I’m more likely to blow it off.
Here’s hoping you have a better week this week!
Do you have a PT? It sounds like tightness in your hips is causing a lot of imbalances and other problems but you should definitely go see a PT and develop a relationship with one. Hope you can figure it out, lady! From reading your posts, I do not think you are overtraining, particularly because you are training for a marathon. But that is a casual observation – definitely talk to a PT and don’t feel bad if you have an off week – it happens!