Hello Mr Footnote!

I am in need of some wise advice and thought you might be the man for me...

I ran my first London marathon last year. I did it in 4:38. I am running a marathon this April and it was all going swimmingly and then I got struck down with dreaded shin splints.

In the last four weeks I have run only a handful of miles, resting up and madly cross training. I ran the Bath Half on Sunday, after three weeks of no real running, I was delighted to run a PB, coming in at 1:57 (2:04 my previous best) and my shin was pain free - yay.

But, now, the dilemma - how to manage the final four weeks of quality training time, getting in enough LSR work without overdoing it.

What are you thoughts? I was thinking about a couple of shorter runs this week (5/8/5 maybe) picking up again at 18 miles at the weekend or Monday, then the LSRs for the following three weeks being 19/13/20 then taper from that point on?

 

Many thanks Mr Footnote :-)

Cheers,

Simone 

Hi Simone,

You should be very pleased with your half marathon time last week because that was a very positive run. Not just the PB but running pain free. I believe you can put this down to all the cross training you have completed when unable to run so pat yourself on the back!

The next three weeks will be crucial because you need to push your body without risking injury just before the marathon. To gain the most out of your training in the final weeks you need to focus on your long slow runs. These runs are important for many physiological factors. Long slow runs will prepare your muscles to work whilst fatigued, your respiratory system will adapt in various ways to become more efficient, these runs will also burn a lot more fat in preparation for race day. If you can run your Long Slow Run's at the distances you have stated then that would be very good considering your injury troubles.

Now in your schedule you seem to be running four days a week. One LSR and 3 medium length runs. I would suggest you break your training into 2 parts. 2 hard runs and two recovery runs (note: I class your Long Slow Run as a hard run). Lets say you run your LSR on Sunday- I would suggest you run a recovery 5 mile run on Tuesday, then a 8-10 mile run at a faster pace Thursday, then an easy 5miles on Saturday.

Your easy runs should literally be that. Almost start these runs at a brisk walking pace for 1 mile and then gradually build up the pace. Feel comfortable on this run and feel as though you could step up the pace if you needed too. Finish these runs looking forward to pushing yourself on the next run!

I would take your midweek effort a bit more seriously and use this as an opportunity to push yourself at race pace. At this stage you do not need to run faster than race pace but if you feel great then why not see what pace you can comfortably run.

I am not going to give you too much advice on your shin splints because hopefully they will give you three weeks of good training. I would suggest the hot and cold method after hard runs to be on the safe side. If they do come back your situation will be different and you may have to review your training.

If I was going to add anything to your training I would suggest you add a recovery walk to your training the day after a long run. This will help speed the recovery and is actually better than completely resting. It is not very exciting I know but I think this will help keep your body ticking over and allow you assess your body after every hard run. This walk can be 30- 60mins depending how you feel so put on some music and walk to the shops!

Apart from that be sensible yet positive with your body and training. Enjoy the fact your injury has gone but this does not give you the green light to push your body as if nothing happened. Achieving a PB with your injury troubles would be amazing so be sensible and get yourself to the start line in the best injury free condition you can!

GOODLUCK and let me know how you get on (even though I will be following your blog!)