Hey, all!
22 year-old male marathoner checking in. I ran in the 2:40s at Boston 2019 on a garbage-tier training cycle, took it easy for two or three weeks, and then kept up fairly high mileage (I'm now realizing I probably should have rested more).
I had one of the best aerobic base-building blocks of my life this past summer in preparation for a 2:3X goal fall marathon. Consistent 80-100mpw was the norm, with solid tempo runs in the 5:40s/mi and long run cut-downs of 20+ miles that felt smooth and relatively easy (averaging 6:10s/mi in some cases, which was likely too fast).
However, in August I came down with a medial tibial stress reaction that put me out of commission for about 1.5 months. It was totally my fault; I had not been sleeping enough, or taking in *nearly* enough calories and nutrients to support that kind of mileage.
I kept aerobically fit by hammering hard intervals on the bike, and gradually returned to running after the prescribed rest. At first, I felt awful as expected, but gradually built back up to high-mileage training and am now feeling pretty in-shape. I also corrected the issues and oversights that had caused my injury in the first place.
However, I'm feeling a bit of a conundrum: my former goal marathon is coming up on November 10th, and although I planned to defer my registration post-injury because of an inability to reach my A-Goal, there's a voice in the back of my mind wondering if I should go for it and see what happens.
Given that I had discarded the marathon plan post-injury in hopes of crushing a fast Turkey Trot 5K, I've been hitting some solid speedwork and am feeling pretty darn strong. However, my main worry is that I haven't done a high quality long-run of 18+ miles since before my injury in August.
Some Recent Stats / Workouts:
- 5 weeks of 80-90 mpw following a 6 week build-up from 40-60mpw post-injury
- 3.5 mi. WU ➡ 200m, 400m, 600m, 800m, 800m, 600m, 400m, 200m @ 5:15/mi., on equal rest @ 6:40/mi.➡ 2 min. standing rest ➡ 4 x 400m @ sub-5:09/mi. on 200m rest @ 6:30/mi. ➡ 2 mi. CD
- 2 mi. WU➡ 5 x 2 mi. GMP cruise intervals @ 5:55 on 400m float (6:35) ➡ 2 mi. CD [fully continuous]
- 7.3 mi. steasy (6:30/mi.) ➡ 8 x (2 min. @ 5% grade, 1 min. @ 1%) @ 6:00/mi [on portions grade-adjusted pace of