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Feel like im hitting a wall training for my first marathon. Is this normal

guest — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 00:23:48 GMT

What you are feeling is so perfectly normal. I am training for my 2nd Marathon in October. I just did an 18 miler yesterday. For me, its not the running that hurts, its the stopping. Cramping & serious leg pain.

What always amazes me in training is how you feel like you are getting nowhere and then one day you can't believe how far you've come. I doubt myself too. I'm 50. What keeps me going is this drive inside of me to push hard, to accomplish something, to say 50 is a number.

Someone told me, on this board, 6 yrs ago when I was training for my first marathon, when I cried after a 9 mile run in the middle of winter outdoors, that I would have more bad runs than good, BUT it's that one good run that keeps you coming back for more. It's so true, & I,ve never forgot that.

Keep at it, one foot in front of the other. If you can run 16 miles, you can run 18. If you can run 18, you can run 20, etc.

Best of luck to you.

Cross training - what do you do?

guest — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:24:41 GMT

I'm training for my second Marathon in October. I'm following Hal Higdons Novice 1 schedule. I have not been cross training.

Cross training, to me, feels like I'm cheating somehow.

My question is what does everyone, who crosstrains do?

I don't care for biking. I have an elliptical but after 30 min. of that get bored. In my gym I have an elliptical, treadmill, mini trampoline, weights, bench and Inspire M2 weight/pulley system.

I walk my dog each morning and evening and have for a long time, so I don't consider that cross-training.

I'm 1/2 way through my training schedule and feel that I could benefit from cross training, but am uncertain what to do and how to get past the mind set that I'm cheating if I do something other than run.

Wooden legs - after 25k

guest — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 15:37:14 GMT

JamesJohnsonLM....wow! thank you for your detailed post. You write what I kinda already know. I know it's the outer quad giving me trouble. I have some exercises from a Sports Clinic that I should be doing daily that I "forget" to do until I am in pain. On Monday afternoon I "rolled" the outer quad with a wood rolling pin. I applied enough pressure that it hurt but I wasn't in agony. That helped me alot and I could feel things loosen almost immediately. I took the dog for a nice long walk last night and that helped alot too.

I am going to print out your suggestion(s) and work with them from now until Marathon time. Somehow I always think things should be so much easier than they are. The trials of running!! Ugh!

Today I'm not sore. My knee is normal and I can walk up and down stairs normally. Tonight is a small run of hills. We will see how it goes

Thanks again. Lots of information and so very much appreciated.

Wooden legs - after 25k

guest — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 19:04:46 GMT

I do not run 2 days before my long runs. My pace is slower than my other training runs. I ran yesterdays 25k at my planned Marathon pace. Perhaps I should slow it down more for my next run.

Thanks for your input. Much appreciated.

Wooden legs - after 25k

guest — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 15:42:21 GMT

Thanks Lenzlaw.

I'm training for a Marathon in October. I am into week 10 of training and yesterdays run was a training run. I'm averaging 32-35km per week plus my long runs. I eat Sharkies (gummy bear things that I bought at the sports store to refuel electrolites) on my long runs and drink water.

I walked home after my run, but maybe it wasn't a long enough walk. Throughout my 25km run I did 4 short walks to recover, eat 2 sharkies and have a drink of water. The walking distance would be between 2 telephone poles. I ran 25.50km in 3:02 My runkeeper averaged me a 7:08 min/km. My breathing was excellent the whole run, but the body started to stiffen up 3/4 of the way through. I know that the problem was where I ran. I had to keep moving from pavement to gravel due to traffic and the gravel was sloped creating an imbalance in the running. I won't do that route again.

I have 4 more long runs to complete. 24k this Sunday, then a 32k then 2 more 25k before Marathon day.

I'm 50 and definately feeling the effects more now than I did 6 years ago when I ran my first Marathon.

Wooden legs - after 25k

guest — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:24:11 GMT

I have the strangest problem. Wooden legs. After my 25k yesterday they became almost rigid at the knee. I've tried Epsom Salts bath, stretching, icing and today they are still rigid.

When I step off a stair my knees don't want to bend, they want to remain rigid. I'm hoping it's just soreness/stiffness and that it will pass.

Any thoughts/advice?

When the training gets tough - where do you go?

guest — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 23:07:45 GMT

All the replies are great, but yours struck a chord with me. When I workout, no matter what it is, I hurt! I always have. I've read alot of stuff over the years & came to the conclusion that I am just one of those people who hurts ALL the time. Thank you for reminding me of that. I will look into some of your "managing pain" suggestions to help me get by.

You are so right in that aging truly sucks!!!

When the training gets tough - where do you go?

guest — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 12:23:21 GMT

Hi fellow runners,

I'm 50 and training for my 2nd Marathon. I ran my first at 44 in 5:17. My original intent was to train to run it in 5:00, however I was overtraining and causing more harm than good to my body.

I've since switched training programs so I'm not putting so much stress on my body.

So, my question is this. Where do you go in your mind, in your training, nutritionally when you hurt so freak'n bad, when you are tired and when you question why you do this?

I'm about 1/2 way through my training program and am finding this week so difficult. The heat & humidity we've had in this part of Ontario Canada has been unbearable and has sucked the life out of me. This morning when I was out for my run I was wondering why I can't be like "normal" people. The answer, of course, is that I have this drive inside of my to achieve something, but man oh man do I hurt!! Quitting is not an option, but being discouraged is part of the process. How do you heal/deal with that?

Thanks.

Molly229

does anyone else ever just give up?

guest — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 12:17:54 GMT

It was so interesting reading all the responses to you. Give up? Hell no! Evidently, based on your update, you didn't give up and are making great progress.

I'm 50 and training for my 2nd Marathon. 8 weeks into training and I'm seriously discouraged. I ask myself why I can't be like "normal" people, when out pounding the miles back. The answer is because runners have this drive inside that pushes us to achieve something from ourselves. There is great satisfaction in working through pain, disappointment, bad runs, good runs, races and all that is inbetween. There is a drive to challenge ourselves and to see how far we can go.

Congratulations on not giving up!

Marathon Training

guest — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 11:58:36 GMT

Congratulations on training for a Marathon. I completed my first Marathon at age 44 without a clue as to how to train. I used the cool running beginner plan and peaked at about 23k because I just wanted to run the Marathon.

I'm now 50 and training for a second Marathon in October. The first 7 weeks I was training too hard which created knee and foot problems for me. I have switched to Hal Higdons Novice 1 and the training is going much better. You have to listen to your body. I train alone because if I train with anyone else it pushes me too far too fast.

Today I feel discouraged as I too hurt all over. The will to achieve something is much stronger than the pain we face. Think about your goals and what you want to achieve. Less truly is more!

Good luck to you.