It's kind of hard to train for a marathon, not to mention making time for blog post, with a 1 month old baby. Fortunately I am able to take my 2 1/2 year old to the gym's day care while I train almost completely for a marathon on a treadmill. I have run approximately 40 miles over the last few weeks and I haven't had much knee pain. I have been told by an orthopedic that to prevent any future inflammation in my knee (see previous posts to see my year long struggle), I will need to do strength training. So along with my marathon training, I will be doing lower body strength training for the next several weeks. Evidently I find that my quads are weaker than they should be and that may be contributing to the muscle imbalance that is causing my pain. I discovered my weakness after discussing the ratio of weight I can lift with my quads vs. my hamstrings. Although it should have been a sign after sitting down on the quad machine after teenage girls and having to reduce the weight. (This actually is not a joke. However After running 6 miles and doing squats I guess I earned the right to get out lifted by a girl. At least I can justify it this way).
I have also put on about 7 pounds over the last year due to my forced inactivity and love for ice cream. I hope to be lighter by this next marathon and hopefully that will reduce some stress on my joints and make me faster. I have decided to substitute a lot of my fattening meals with smoothies. I bought a book called "The Ultimate Smoothie Book" that has a lot of good recipes and unlike most books, it has all of the specifications i.e calories, fat, protein which most books don't have. I think for running long distances these may be great drinks as they have plenty of carbs and aren't too fattening.
I am holding off raising support for the next month or so. I figure when I start running in double digit mile territory, I will have a better grasp on whether or not my right knee will be able endure the marathon. The last thing I want to do is raise support and then be a no show for the race.
1 comment:
Do you think 7 pounds makes that much of a difference with our running? I'm wondering the same with me too. Would 3 or 4 pounds matter taking off? I can see how 20 pounds would make a difference but not sure how low that amount could go and still affect our running.
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