So I meant to do this update a few weeks ago but time escaped me lol! Since my last post I did run my half marathon on Thanksgiving. My goal was not to finish in a certain time but to run as a family with my husband who wanted to do it with me. We did run the entire time and it went great!
I am continuing to train for the Miami Marathon at the end of January. I am now less than 6 weeks out and honestly I am struggling a little. Running so many miles is a bit of a mind f**k just to be honest with you haha! It’s also starting to really hurt when I do these longer runs. My knees are pretty sore & my energy is also pretty low sometimes. Several years ago I had some serious problems with my back (bulging disc that required steroid injections in my spine) and I definitely feel some of those back problems coming on again.
So what have I been doing to help with these issues? Well I had to change up my diet again. If you remember I was carb cycling but I honestly was not getting enough steady energy plus I think I was going a little too crazy on my high carb days lol! So I am now more regularly tracking and getting 40-50% carbs and 30-35% protein daily with the rest coming from fat. This has definitely helped with my energy! I am also doing 2 or 3 re-feed (aka cheat) meals weekly where I just eat as much and whatever I want. I was a little worried about how it would change my physique but I haven’t really noticed much change as you can see in picture above. I do think I am maybe losing a little definition but not significantly plus thankfully I still have my booty haha!
Although I may not look much different I am less strong. I have had to cut back to weight training only twice a week and if I train too heavy I can really feel it in a bad way when I run. So now I am weight training mostly upper body plus some lower using moderate weight and only 2X a week. I am also training core at least 3X a week though-lots of plank variations among other things ?
One additional thing I started taking which has definitely helped with my knee pain is No. 7. It helps with joint mobility and comfort. I got mine at Vitamin Shoppe if you are interested in trying it. Before I started taking it I was having a hard time wearing heels for several days after a long run (& I love heels!!) so now I can actually wear them without nearly as much pain & actually on the same day I run long runs. That’s proof enough for me! I am hoping maybe this can help anyone else training or wanting to train for a half marathon or marathon ?
Feel free to comment below or message me if you have any questions I am not covering too!
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Azure
December 18, 2015 at 7:13 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The mind f*** is the worst thing about marathon training and race day! However- I think that you are well equipped to deal with it. You are going to kick some marathon booty?
Sarahlinbrockner
December 19, 2015 at 6:32 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Awww thank you Azure!! I wasn’t expecting to feel so overwhelmed at times but it’s good to know that others felt the same way lol!
Alex
December 30, 2015 at 10:26 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hi Sarah. Nice post and good luck with the marathon! Could you talk a little about your motivation to keep training for the marathon even though you are experiencing problems of your knees and back? Could that training lead you to a more serious injures? If thats the case, why bother then doing the marathon if you could be doing other less prone to injure kind of training. Just curious about it.
Sarahlinbrockner
December 30, 2015 at 11:49 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hi Alex! My motivation to keep training is based on the fact that running a marathon is on my bucket list. Certainly a lot of goals we have in life do not come easy and without some sort of pain including a lot of other forms of exercise or sports. If goals or dreams were easy then they wouldn’t be such an accomplishment ? I am 100% listening to my body and the pain is not so bad that I would think it would cause serious injuries otherwise I would have re-considered my goal. I have been running for over 20 years including long distance runs. A 26 mile run has never been in my normal routine but I have ran over 10 miles fairly regularly. The knee pain tends to come when I get into the 15+ mile runs and it does go away within a day or two after the run. It is a dull pain mostly in my left knee. I have less than 4 weeks left before this marathon so I am confident I can push through without any serious issues. I appreciate your concern and certainly if I was advising a client and the pain was more severe than I am experiencing I would suggest they consider a different goal. It is NOT worth serious injury but this isn’t the case with me.
Alex
December 30, 2015 at 2:14 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Thank you Sarah! Completely understand it. I also read about the enjoyment one feels when you finish the matathon run and the sharing among the participants. I don’t run regularly because of the weather but i do on summer and a fair amount of indoor sports on winter. Seems the marathon idea is a good one where you put yourself on a disciplined training mode first and then on a live one. I will def put on my bucket list too ?. Again thanks for your advice. It’s very interesting what you said about listening what your body say to supply the right amount/type of nutrients and the right mental state ?. The hardest part is to really listen.