It’s been three years since my last marathon, which was Boston 2017. Since then, every time I would try to train for a marathon, I’d get injured. This past summer, I thought I had finally made it. I was training for the Erie Marathon, logging close to 70 mile weeks. I was on fire. Unfortunately, that fire was actually stupidity. I had increased my mileage too quickly and ended up with a stress reaction on my femoral neck. If you don’t know what that is, it’s the bone that connects your leg (hip) to your trunk, in between your hip and pelvic bone. If that turns in to a stress fracture, you may end up needing surgery to fix it.
Several months later, I’m completely recovered. I’ve been very smart about building mileage back up, resting when my body told me so, and staying steady each week, first at 3-5 mpw, 12 mpw, 20 mwp, 30 mpw for a few, and finally hovering at 40 mpw for several weeks. When I think back on my first runs of 30 seconds, then 1 minute, 2 minutes, until I could eventually run a half mile and was elated for that, I realize it’s been a long road. I was first injured in early July 2019 and didn’t do my first 10 mile week until first week of October, then building up the 20 early November, 35 early December, and then keeping upper 30s-40 mpw ever since (two months).
Today is the first day of my official training for the Jim Thorpe Marathon, the inaugural year for the marathon. It’s straight down a rails-to-trails bike path along the Lehigh River. We’ll take a train ride 26 miles to the start in the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway and run down a steady 1-2% downgrade nearly the entire way. It’s on crushed gravel, I believe, which slows me a bit, but then it’s 1-2% downgrade should counter that (maybe).
Now that I’m all the wiser from my summer training derailing (see what I did there?), I know to back off when I need to, not be so overzealous about sticking to Every. Single. Workout. (Even when my body says otherwise.) I’ll be more relaxed, and I’m keeping the bulk of my weeks in the mid to high 50 mpw range, with only one week at 61 mpw. I’m using my favorite method, which is the Luke Humphey Marathon Method (formerly known as the Hansons Marathon Method). We’ll see how this goes.
My last few marathons a few years ago, I was in the habit of getting up super early to run. I’m much more busy now. And I’m in a new age group: 50. Yikes, that went fast. Things change. It’ll be interesting to see if I can get to the start.
Run for the Run 