Learning the hard way

Back in January when I told my coach that I wanted to run Eugene on May 2 he said it was a bad idea.  It was too soon, he’d said, I’d be better off with a late June marathon.  He was concerned because I’d just run the second of two marathons only five weeks apart, and he’d thought *that* was a bad idea too.  But I’d done better in both races than he expected so I ignored his advice.  I did research marathons scheduled in June but didn’t find any that appealed to me.  Eugene, on the other hand, had all the right characteristics: small, fast, a beautiful setting, generally cool weather, great reviews.

After recovering from the marathon for two weeks I began my accelerated training schedule with a 14-mile run.  I remember being stunned that I had to jump back in at 14, but that was what my new schedule prescribed.  Eight miles was what I’d been anticipating, 14 was…wow.  Okay, I told myself, I can do this.  Mind over matter.  I’m just a little tired from back-to-back marathons, it’s not like I’m starting from scratch, I’ve already built up my endurance.  I’ll just stay the course and gradually my energy will return.

But it didn’t.  Very few of my training runs felt good, especially the long ones.  I kept examining my mental game, figuring that all the recent changes in my life–half moving to California and half not, learning a new job and a new company, my nomadic lifestyle–were taking their toll.  It never occurred to me that I was just plain tired from training for a year straight and running back-to-back marathons.

In this timeframe what had been a minor ache in my calf escalated into severe tightness/pain in my entire right leg, from my arch to my hip.  I dealt with it by getting frequent massages but that didn’t address the root cause, it merely loosened my muscles enough to continue training.

The problems with my leg got so bad that the week before the marathon I found myself doubting my ability to run a full 26 miles.  I didn’t know if I had a bona fide injury and I didn’t wind up hurting myself so badly that I had to take months off from running to recover.  That is not the mindset with which you want to approach a race.

A friend got me in to see her physical therapist the Monday before the marathon.  Ultimately he said I could run if I did a couple of stretches twice a day, bought new shoes immediately, and promised to stop running if I experienced more pain than usual during the run.  But he was unable to tell me if my leg would hold for the whole race.  Still, knowing I wasn’t compounding a bad injury gave me some relief.

So I ran it.  As you know from my race synopsis, my leg wasn’t much of an issue during the race but I had to overcome extreme fatigue in order to finish, and I scraped by with a 28-second PR.
After the race I emailed my coach to report in.  I admitted that I had overdone it and fatigued myself  to the point of exhaustion.  He replied saying, nicely, “I told you so.”  Yes you did, Coach, I learned my lesson.

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