Missing the final Steel City Road Runners taper run because of injury and burnout
Apr 27, 2013 · 3 minute read · CommentsrunningPittsburgh MarathonSteel City Road Runners
It turned out that the unexpected fast pace that I stupidly went along with took its toll on me. I am now in serious trouble with just one more week to go before the Pittsburgh Marathon. This morning I did not at all feel like running, and so I skipped attending the final (and 6 mile) Steel City Road Runners Saturday morning run that I had so looked forward to all these months!! I take these Saturday training runs seriously and have really enjoyed them, writing about each one that I participate in.
I do not know whether I will be able to even go to the start line of the marathon in a week.
Injury and burnout
As of yesterday, I simply felt tired and sore. I’ve been battling burnout on marathon training for some time now, basically since my 16-mile long run of two weeks ago, which was the last time I felt really strong and stable. The last two weeks have been very worrisome to me, as I’ve reported on overtraining and injury multiple times.
My legs are hurting. My left knee is a little weird, my right shin is hurting (I have not had shin splints all year so far!), I’ve been waking up with tightness and pain under my left foot (plantar fascia?). These are serious problems, not run-of-the-mill training soreness. It feels like I’ve run my body into the ground. It’s such a shame, because I was feeling so great two weeks ago.
The worst physical problem is my skin! My dry cracking skin on my right foot has gotten worse. The crack at the big toe has reopened. A new crack has formed near the ball of my foot. I cannot put pressure on this foot without extreme pain. I also have a crack near the heel of my left foot that had been healing earlier but now is bothering me as well.
What now?
All I can do is rest and hope to get back my energy, and also fix my skin problems. I am soaking my feet and rubbing off dry skin and rubbing on foot cream in order to try to heal the cracks.
Conclusion
It was really stupid of me to have deviated from my tapering plans two days ago and run much faster than I should have, given that I was just coming back from injury. It wasn’t on my schedule to do such a thing. Now I’m in trouble.