Post Injury Running and Marathon Training

Got anxious this morning and went for a run. I've not run really since the Hot Chocolate 15k where I messed up my IT band. I decided to go for a slow mile, focusing on form (which I'm trying to change).

The best news of all, I felt ZERO pain during the run!! This was by far a surprise. Runners know that when you can't run for practically 2 months due to injury, knowing you can get back into the swing of things is great.

The good news is that I put down a good time, far faster than I imagined while trying not to heel strike. Heel striking is probably one of the most common causes of Plantar Fasciitis, which I had in both feet! Another change, new iPhone App. Nike+ was simply not cutting it anymore. It's nice to get props from Kara Goucher and other accomplished runners but I can live without that. Runmeter gives far more details about the run, and I'm a nerd, so that's important to me. Details on the run can be found here.

I've been listening to a bunch of podcasts on running and reading even more about it. It's helped keep me motivated during injury. One of the podcasts is called Marathon Training Academy. The podcast is free but they also sell marathon training plans at several levels. I know there are free plans out there, but I'm a big believer in "you get what you pay for" so I decided to buy one after gaining a special level of trust in their advice from the show. Their advice so far in the plan I'm using (Beginner Level) calls for running just 3 days per week. I think this will serve me well and avoid burnout and injury. It also calls for 2 days of cross training per week, which is difficult for me since when I walk into a gym I get that glazed over look in my eyes because I don't really know what the hell I'm doing. We'll see how those go, some of their cross training recommendations include spinning, so I'll probably try that first. Good cardio workout with good resistance should be good for my quads.

The plan is also 20 weeks, and I'm about 18 weeks out from my first full marathon, so i'll have to condense it a bit. Perhaps skip some of the shorter runs and cross train instead but focus on the long runs and not missing any of those.

Keep up with the information as I run, I'll be posting my runs as I complete them. I don't have a ton of time, so It'll probably post once per week how training went. Until next time, happy running!