I seem to be having a recurring problem on my IM marathon.
I feel great, but after about 14-15 miles I quickly develope
crippling leg pains usually starting in one leg eventually both that
barely allows me to walk briskly. Its very similar to the pain one gets with ITBand syndrome.
I also happened to me in a very hilly half marathon this winter.
In my workup I ran about 30 miles per week with a 2:45 min long run and several
2:20-2:30 long runs as well
any suggestions?
There could be a lot of things at play here.
You don’t appear to be running enough miles for a marathon. 30 miles/week is very low for a marathon and is probably the reason you start to hurt at the halfway point. At 30 miles/week with a 2:45 run, you are doing over half your miles in one day. Long runs are very important but I would rather run shorter and more often than put half my miles into one day. If you are training for an open marathon, you should run at least 5 times per week; 6 if your joints can take it. The long run should be more like 1/3 of your weekly miles, not 1/2. Check Runner’s World for some great plans that really do work.
Consistency and **frequency **are key to building strong form and strong joints. Pay attention to your foot fall as well. Anything other than straight forward and back puts added stress on things like the ITB. You may want to look into physical therapy-type exercises to strengthen the upper glutes, hip flexors and the other stabalizers used in running.
thanks,
I have felt that maybe i should be running more, but my cts coach doesn’t think so, and i’ve read stuff on gordo’s site that says 30-40 miles is all he does. I also never really understood the not running more than 3 hours thing. for elite runners thats a marathon, while for me thats 20 miles or so
Gordo is training run in addition to swim and bike…
30 miles is low. look at some marathon plans and see what might be good for you…perhaps a novie or intermediate plan; base it on the mileage you’re already going.
A while I suffered from quad pain at about 18 miles into long races (straight marathon or IM) even though I was running 20milers pain free in training.
I’m not sure which of things I did fixed it for me, but what I did was:
- run in compressions shorts, this really helped my quads feel less fatigued on long runs
- massage my quads with a rolling pin thingy, this helped with recovery
- sort my hydration/nutrition out
I don’t know if any of these will help you or not though.