My Road To Running A Marathon: Part 2 - Injuries
Last time I made an update on my road to running a marathon I had just finished a half marathon walk/run in around 3 hours. After a few weeks of a lot of running and walking I experienced what I concluded must be achilles tendonitis. It doesn't really hurt when I'm warm, and I'm particularly fine walking. But it led to some problems stretching my hip because my achilles started hurting doing it.
Then I slacked with my stretching and yoga on a holiday trip to Copenhagen where we walked on pavements for a week (with barefoot shoes) averaging around 10-15km each day of walking. This of course resulted in my lower back going almost full retard. Full retard for me would mean not being able to move and having to piss in a bucket. Fortunately having that much back pain has not occurred in more than 5 years. But anyone who has struggled with Lumbago knows how much it sucks. You feel like your upper body is made up of two parts, and the top one is balancing on top of the other with some matches or something else really thin that could break if you don't walk really carefully.
Last time I had it though, I did not do any stretching except a little bit of hip flexing and backside thigh just very carefully, and continued to shop groceries, do the dishes and go for short but gradually longer walks. This worked fine and I recovered in about three or four days.
Hopefully I will be back soon - but right now it seems like the best thing to do is to get back into my yoga and stretching routine and also do some more core and strength exercises (I've been so obsessed by walking and running) and perhaps focus a little bit more on short walks and runs and go easy on the long walks.
Even though I love going for 3-4 hour walks it's both time consuming AND tiresome. I don't have any problems walking that far, but it does take some toll on my body.
So, the morale here must be to take your time and realize that being 36 and going from out of shape to what I would consider being in really good shape (running a full marathon) does take some time. I might have to accept that I won't make the goal this summer, but that's OK.
The most important thing is that I have found so much joy in walking and running, and that it feels like such a break from everyday life and stress. I've been doing it so frequently that I'm craving it - especially those long walks and long slow runs.
Next time I will hopefully update on some new records! Happy running/walking everyone!
It's great that you're so passionate about running! Sadly our bodies change so quick and we're not able to do the same things anymore as when we were younger. It's still important to take care of ourselves and to do what we love! You might not be able to reach your goal this year, but if you work hard on it then I'm sure you'll manage next year. :) Good luck & enjoy your walk!
Thanks for the encouraging words! Guess I'm having a little bit of a midlife crisis..first gray beard hairs starting to appear and getting in shape takes longer. Also, the loss of a parent makes you question your genetics and you know at 36 you might as well have lived half your life. Imagine that. It went so fast.
My idea is that as long as I keep my body moving it has no reason to die. :)
I know the kind of pain you're talking about, haven't had that in a couple of years, but I try to be careful with certain moves and you mentioning the possibility of going "full retard" sort of ruined my mood.
Take it easy anyway and screw the marathon!
Thanks! It's so disabling that pain..
Sorry to hear about your injury. I have a question. I remember you saying you did powerlifting when you were younger. Do you still train with weights? I'm 35 and i'm still training squat, power clean, push press, bench and deadlift , obviously only for fun, no competitons or anything, but I'm not a great fan of too much cardio.
I just quit..like 5-6 years ago. I didn't enjoy it anymore. I do some pushups and body weight squats etc. But after 10 years of heavy lifting I'm still kind of "big" for my 85kg. So that encourages me to continue to do cardio,, I have actually been thinking about getting a gym membership again..
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