Running is fun again! [Marathon Recovery: Week 3]

Posts for this week are kind of out of order. But I do want to update you on my marathon recovery because I’m improving and it’s a wonderful feeling.

Last week was infinitely better than the previous week. I had very little pain during my runs, and after my weekly chiropractic visit, I felt great. I was also given the green light to start half marathon training, which is amazing!

No major milestones of note on the actual runs themselves, but I did average between 2 and 3 miles, and I felt really solid. My pace has been steady as well, which makes me believe I’m moving up in the world. Running is no longer painful, filled with trepidation, or otherwise un-fun. Running is indeed fun again!

During RRCA training, we discussed burnout quite a bit. I don’t think I realized it at the time, but looking back on it now, I believe I may have been suffering some marathon training fatigue. Coupled with the ITB issues, I was beginning to not like it at all. I’m out there actually enjoying my runs again and it’s a great feeling.

Because who cares about pace, amIright?

During my first couple runs of the week I could definitely feel some remaining ITB issues. No pain to speak of, but could definitely tell there was still some inflammation there. On Thursday before my chiro visit, I felt a little bit of pinching on my left side. My doc assured me the random pains and pinches would come to an end.

On Saturday I only put in 2.5 miles. And I felt no pain. At all. I definitely could have run longer, and I was planning on hitting 3 but I saw my neighbor with his son and stopped to say hi. After we were chatting for a while, I decided 2.5 was enough for the day. It worked out well because on Saturday evening I was on my feet for quite some time. (More on that in tomorrow’s post.)

I know this isn’t the world’s most exciting post but sometimes it’s the little things. Today I’m celebrating being pain-free. Have I learned my lesson? Heck yeah. I’ll be doing my due diligence of rolling, stretching, and adding even more strength training than I had been doing before. After each minor injury, I’ve learned how to deal with and control the issue, and this time will be no different. Running on injured IT bands is not fun and very painful. I am so grateful I’m on the other side of it, and even more grateful that I’ve been giving the proverbial blessing to begin training again. I thought this day would never come! I have another chiro visit on Friday and then if all goes well, next week will officially kick-off fall half marathon training.