The story usually goes that you increase your mileage a bit too fast and you get hurt. Or you just do a few too many workouts one week that your body is not ready to handle. Whatever the case may be, you may find yourself with some random aches and pains that you just can not get rid of. The simple solution is to take some time off.
In my case, I took 5 weeks to run at about 1/3 of my mileage before I got hurt. I was running at about 60 miles per week, and for the past 5 weeks I have been averaging about 20 miles per week.
For the first few weeks, I ran pretty well in my races. My body thought that I was tapering. After 5 weeks, though, it finally decided that it was time to decondition.
Last week, I ran the Back Bay 5K race series as a tempo run. My first mile was fine, but my last two I lost it big time. This week, I did a quarter mile workout, and it took me a good minute and a half longer than usual to do that workout. And I can feel it.
My hope is that I will bounce right back now that I am increasing my mileage again. September is my racing month. This weekend I will not be racing, but I have an 8k and a 5k the next weekend, a 10k the weekend after that, and another 5k a week or two after that.
In the meantime, I am wearing a wrap around my ankle while I sleep that pulls my toes up so that my arch will get stretched throughout the night. I am hoping that this will cause my foot pains to go away. They are mostly better now, but I want them completely better.
After all, New York City is only 2 months away.
Yea, I might’ve over done it a bit tonight. I thought I would do three easy miles after my first six Tuesday, and it somehow turned into a 3 mile tempo run. I guess I was focusing on negative splits! Ah well. I’ll take it a little bit easier next week than have a taper week before I run my first 5K!!! 60 miles?! Damn!!
Indeed, also a big problem is getting into a workout, and trying to hold on when it’s falling apart because either you’re injury is causing some over-compensation or stress that wouldn’t generally be there. The ability to shut-it-down and figure things out and go at it again another day is underrated.
My biggest recommendation with high mileage is massage therapy. I increased my mileage this summer upwards of 80 mpw, and used and race i did as a workout and sure, I had the aches and pains that anyone will have (last summer i maybe did 30-35 a week) but the key for me was keeping everything in balance (in terms of hips, etc.) so not only am I running more efficiantly, but i’m avoiding injury. The price keeps most of us away (i’m still paying my own way through college…) but its worth it in terms of allowing your body to handle the stresses of training properly.
Get well Blaine,
Chris Gatchell
I have not been getting massage therapy, but I have been getting plenty of massages on the foot and legs from my wife.
I don’t think that I had any biomechanical problems due to the injury, since it does not usually bother me when I am running. The pain is usually when I am just sitting around at work or getting out of bed.