This is officially my last "mandatory" rest day. From now until at least the Boston Marathon my 1 day off per week becomes optional. I'm still going to lean towards taking that day off. However, if I can handle it, I will start running 7 days a week regularly. It actually makes running high weekly mileage easier since you can reduce your average miles per day.
There is a small movement in running led by the rather simple phrase....
RUN MORE!!!
I have adopted it as my running philosophy. It certainly goes against a lot of the training recommendations out there for recreational runners. However, to those that can handle it, running more will lead to significant improvements.
I wish I could run more without my bum IT Band acting up all the time...
ReplyDeleteI saw your post, it can certainly be frustrating. Whenever injuries flare up, I always look towards too much, too fast, too soon as the first cause.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you aggravated it during that marathon, then maybe tried to pile on the miles too quickly after a layoff. Though it's hard to tell, it could also just still be from the marathon itself.
It looks like you've fixed it twice before, so I'm sure you can get through it again. One thing to consider is more consistency and less down time. Instead of ceasing running all together after a goal race, perhaps you could cut back just a little bit more than your taper weeks for up to a month then start building back up following the good old 10% rule. Massive variation week to week can wreak havoc on the body.
I know personally that I usually feel at my strongest after running at a consistent mileage level for a few weeks in a row. It's always when I start changing that things get bad.
Just an idea, though of course, if you need the mental break that's another story!