I was training pretty diligently for Richmond Marathon using pfitzingers 18 week 55 mile/wk plan and got a stress fracture 3 weeks before the race in late Oct. I took 5 and a half weeks off and just ran one mile easy for the first time today (no pain!). I plan to spend the month of December easing back into running and get back to normal training in January.
My goal is to qualify for Boston (3:35 for my age group). I ran my fastest half about a month before I got injured in 1:42:03.
When is the optimal time to run a spring marathon to reach my goal? I want to run one in mid or late March because I'm antsy to finish what I started training for so many months ago, but I'm worried that's not giving me enough time to get back to where I was before the injury. Do I consider the 15 weeks of training I did for Richmond null now and start back from week 1 in January, or can I do a shorter training program this time around? Is 18 weeks an optimal length, or considering the fact that I had an overuse injury was it too long and 12 or 14 weeks might be better now? I have been swimming, lifting, and working on core during my time off.