Before I recap my weekly workouts and updates, I want to give a shout out to Coach Laura, who has been an incredible source of information and support throughout the past month and a half I spent beginning my marathon training plan. If you’ve been reading along this summer, you’ll know that I began having some hip pain in early July that turned into a full-on injury, and as a result, I’ve decided to focus on recovery and will be deferring my entry to the New York City Marathon until next year.
July is usually one of my favorite months. With the Fourth of July at the beginning – barbecues, ice cream, fireworks – and my birthday toward the end – cake, more ice cream, birthday candles – there’s always been a lot to celebrate. When I was younger, I was usually away at camp for most of the month. Later on, in high school and college and law school, I was studying or doing an internship. Now, I’ve spent most of the month doing the same thing I did for the first six months of the year, but like the rest of summer, it still feels a little different. If nothing else, there’s definitely more ice cream to be seen in my July monthly recap than there was in February or March or April. And that’s saying something because we all know how much I love ice cream…
Since I’m currently contending with a hip flexor injury, my marathon training has scaled back. I only ran twice this week, both for much shorter and easier runs, and I plan to continue resting my hip for the next week or two until I see a sports medicine specialist and get to physical therapy. I’ll keep sharing my more limited weekly workouts and updates on how I’m healing in my Monday posts.
For those who follow along with my weekly workouts posts, it will come as no surprise that I’ve been having some hip flexor pain lately. What you may not know is that I had a similar injury two summers ago, in my other hip, and I’ve been thinking about that experience a lot lately as I try to figure out how to rest, recover, prevent further or future damage, and also get back on track with marathon training.
My mileage was supposed to increase this week, after last week’s cutback, but I ended up running a little less than last week instead. My left hip has been sore lately – which surprised me when it first started to ache because up to this point, all my injuries have been on the right side of my body, including a broken ankle ten years ago, tendinitis in my knee, and a pulled hip flexor two summers ago. While having to work with and around an achy hip isn’t my first choice for the second month of marathon training, I still think overall it’s going as well as the first, because I’m focusing more on ways to stretch, strengthen, and stabilize my hip and other joints and that should be beneficial in the long run.
This WIAW covers a Saturday that began with post run brunch in New York City and ended at a wedding with perhaps the most food I’ve ever seen in one room. Unfortunately I was too busy to get many photos, but I hope my description does it justice! Anyway, brunch was two gluten free waffles along with a spinach and Cheddar cheese omelet.
And the second month of marathon training has begun! This was a cutback week, so my overall mileage decreased compared to last week, but I felt good on each and every run despite a few twinges in my hip that I’ve been feeling lately. Getting to the starting line injury free is a top priority, so I’ll consider it a good week overall.
As I mentioned in my June monthly recap, this was the first month of my training plan for the New York City Marathon on November 6. My plan, crafted for me by Laura at This Runner’s Recipes, will last for five months and bring me right up to the starting line. At the end of each month, I’ll write a recap of my training and include the highlights as well as what I want to work on in the following weeks. Hopefully it will be helpful both for me and anyone else looking to do a 5-month marathon training cycle!
Happy Fourth of July to one and all! Today is the first Fourth I’ll spend in Manhattan, meeting up with some friends for ice cream and a stroll in the park and watching the fireworks over the river tonight with Brett. We went to a barbecue at a family friend’s house outside the city yesterday, so it’s the best of both worlds. I’ll recap my weekly workouts and then some scenes from Sunday.
renaissancerunnergirl 