Mid-marathon Training Break

For a four hour marathon a training break won't make a difference. Go on a diet and lose 10 lbs. It will do you more good then trying to run 50 mpw.

It "could" be AT, but it could also be a number of other things.

50 mpw could be a relatively significant jump depending on where you actually were in that 20-40 range. Any cut back weeks? How many hard sessions do you do now in your marathon training? How many did you do previously? Do you hit the hills harder now? What is your stretching routine like? Are you doing calf raises? Have you changed the type of shoes you are running in?

To me, this sounds more like an overtraining thing than an AT at the moment. I went through something similar. I dropped a lot of weight and I increased the intensity with also increasing mileage. You should increase one or the other. I ended up taking a week off and added more dynamic stretching to my routine. I was able to break my original goal in my first marathon.

Sounds exactly like what I have been through lately. And I agree with the above that it is probably overtraining. Don't keep running through it. I did that for a couple of weeks and it never got better. I skipped my two weekend runs last weekend and saw a chiro on Monday. My calf & hamstring were very tight on one side where I was feeling the sore AT. With some work on those muscles and some SI-joint alignment I am feeling better and running without much pain at all.

Start working in some eccentric heel drops now and rest a little. Eliminate all speedwork & hills until it gets better. A little break at this point will not make a difference. I'm also 10 weeks out from a marathon.

Your predicament sounds very similar to the one I had this spring - hobbyjogger running 1st marathon, achilles pain 2 months before the race. It threw a wrench in my "training," but here's what eventually worked for me:

First, take a full week off from running, starting today. Do 30 eccentric calf raises several times a day. Then on your first day back to running, jog an easy 3 miles and go home. If you feel the achilles the next day, take another week off. If you don't feel any problems, then run another 3 miles the next day, increasing the pace a little. As long as there is no pain, run 3 miles each day for 1 week.

After a week of running with no pain, start increasing the mileage again, starting with around 30 mpw and bumping up by about 5 mpw per week. Be vigilant about pain every day, and take days off if you feel it.

Also, I completely cut out speed work because it tended to aggravate plantar fasciitis pain, my ankle, and achilles. For a 4-ish hour marathon, you don't need speed. Just do tempos.

Thanks a lot all. I skipped another day today and am still pain free, I'll be giving myself the rest of the weekend off and will give it a go Monday or Tuesday. I appreciate all the feedback, it makes me feel better about giving the legs a rest.

I've been doing the eccentric calf stretches three times a day and have been using the foam roller on my calves.

I'm reworking my training to drop down to 40mpw and removing speed work. My plan for the first few weeks back will be to stick with easy runs. I'll add in my tempo routine if I feel okay after that.