My debut marathon training begins on June 23, a new journey deeper into this life of running and I am scared any injuries or soon to be injury that might be lying under the surface.

  First it was back in late March, early April my ankles started acting up so I had to take 4 days off. Then the few days after the Owensboro half marathon a week and 2 days ago, my calves were extremely tight, my quads were really sore and my hams were a bit tight so I took it easy last week with a 7.4 mile easy run on Tuesday, then 2 days of rest because my calves were a bit tight, then a 5 mile run on Friday that was supposed to be 7 but I just didn't have the heart at the time (financial problems) and then pushed my long run to 14 miles which to some might not have been smart. Saturday morning/afternoon I chased my son around for an hour at the riverfront park in Owensboro (Smothers Park), he would run under things where I would have to squat and walk like a duck to keep up with him. It was feeling like a leg strengthening session before a long run, probably not smart either.

  The last 4 miles of yesterday's 14 miler, my lower quads were hurting. They were really sore, just above the knees and towards the inside of the knees (if that makes sense). I pushed on and made it to the 14 miles, by the afternoon I was feeling a very noticeably dull ache when walking (at the point of bending my knee bringing it forward from the ground) so I began icing it as much as possible. This morning I didn't notice the ache too much, though it is more noticeable for a minute or so after icing.... strange. I think it's getting better, or at least recovering but I am seriously wondering if I should take it easy for the next few days.

   My only huge concern is that I begin my marathon training on June 23 without any hiccups, and I am worried that things are already falling apart before it gets really serious.

   I am wondering if I should decrease my mileage over the next week or 2 before marathon training begins, take it easy and just try to recover so I don't burn out during my training. Things were going really great up until April, I was slowing inching my weekly mileage up closer and closer to a mpw of 35-40 and then the ankle issues started, then the half marathon so I've been keeping it closer to a 26-32 mpw range.

     Any advice would be most appreciated.

As some people pointed out in the dailies thread, your mileage is really low right now for the length of long run you're running.  In an ideal world it would be closer to (or under) 25% of your total mileage, so a 10 mile LR for a 40 mile week.  I start getting knee issues if my long run starts getting over about 1/3 of my total mileage (12-13 for a 36-40 mile week)-- I can do it for a while but eventually it catches up with me.

That said I agree with taking a couple easy weeks between now and June 23.  You won't lose fitness and if you can resolve your nagging aches you'll be better off to start training.  Cross-train, cross-train, cross-train, though.  Weak hips/glutes/core can contribute to some of these types of issues.  I don't know if that's going on in this case, but better to resolve it if you can.

Your training really started the day you began running. Every mile you've run since then has added to your base. There's more to marathon training than the long run. Those mid-week miles will help a lot, so don't ignore them or cut them short.

Start drinking heavily.

I should preface this by saying that I don't know anything about anything, since I've never run a full before either.  But I have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express before, so here goes.

I looked at the plan you have in your log, and as the others have noted, your long runs are a fairly high percentage of your overall weekly mileage.  On the 20-miler week, for example, it's close to 50%.  The plan I'm following is somewhat extreme in the other direction, topping out at 26% of weekly mileage, for example.

I would recommend that you increase your weekly mileage and decrease your weekly long run.  On that kind of base, running long will take a lot out of you.  Plus a higher overall mileage would help you in the full, I think.

If you still want to run those longer LRs to build up confidence for the marathon, you might consider running long only every other week?  Then on the "off" weeks, you could run higher mileage on your other runs so you would still get the weekly mileage in without giving your legs the pounding of the LR every week.

My thought is that there's lots of stuff in our legs, hips, and feet that is still developing since we are both fairly new runners.  We're a little spoiled by seeing the kinds of runs that other runners here are able to put up, and maybe we'll be able to pull that off down the road.  But for a first marathon, it doesn't hurt to be conservative in training if at all possible.  At that means being careful about pushing too far on the long run when the legs just aren't ready for it yet.

Good luck to you!

That is a possibility, yes though sad because the long run is my favorite run out of all. I love being out there for so long, being myself and to my own thoughts It's the run I look forward to out of all of my runs.

Either I could do like you advised, or I could cut back on the inbetween weeks or "off" weeks' long run, maybe cut it back 3-5 miles or something like that?

Why does it seem that this is becoming more like science? 

I should preface this by saying that I don't know anything about anything, since I've never run a full before either.  But I have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express before, so here goes.

 

I looked at the plan you have in your log, and as the others have noted, your long runs are a fairly high percentage of your overall weekly mileage.  On the 20-miler week, for example, it's close to 50%.  The plan I'm following is somewhat extreme in the other direction, topping out at 26% of weekly mileage, for example.

 

I would recommend that you increase your weekly mileage and decrease your weekly long run.  On that kind of base, running long will take a lot out of you.  Plus a higher overall mileage would help you in the full, I think.

 

If you still want to run those longer LRs to build up confidence for the marathon, you might consider running long only every other week?  Then on the "off" weeks, you could run higher mileage on your other runs so you would still get the weekly mileage in without giving your legs the pounding of the LR every week.

 

My thought is that there's lots of stuff in our legs, hips, and feet that is still developing since we are both fairly new runners.  We're a little spoiled by seeing the kinds of runs that other runners here are able to put up, and maybe we'll be able to pull that off down the road.  But for a first marathon, it doesn't hurt to be conservative in training if at all possible.  At that means being careful about pushing too far on the long run when the legs just aren't ready for it yet.

 

Good luck to you!

I just want to add that as you start running more, stuff hurts.  Are you sore or are you injured?  If you just have a slew of nagging aches, you best get used to it.    There literally isn't a single day where I don't hurt somewhere.  Right now it's my bum knee and my hip.  Stuff used to hurt a lot more but my body has gotten used to the daily pounding.  I am sure most folks here who train for marathons have something that hurts every day.

As far as the mileage goes, I agree with meaghan's and George's points.

 I like that idea

Yeah, I should have taken a few days as rest after the half Memorial Day Weekend, I knew it but I was letting my old stubborn "gotta get the miles in" self take control again That is what got me in trouble in 2010 and 2012, I learned well from it last year and kicked ass at the 3 half marathons I had but I fear I am letting it control me again and I've got to get back in control damn it.

 I tweaked my plan again, and I know I will keep tweaking it through the year but I like having something to look at and think over, at least giving me some sort of idea of what I am going to do you know? That is one of the reasons I love making my own plans rather than trying to follow "professional" plans, I like going with how I am feeling and what I can pretty much assume my body is ready for

 

Ah, but if you trade a long for two "medium long" runs for the same distance, you get twice the "head cleaning" power in the same week- could be something to look forward to!

 

Also, I took a week off after my second half and close to a week off a month ago, and neither time has it hurt my fitness.  I was really stiff after my first week off, but that's because I didn't stretch or even walk at all, and did a lot of car travel at the same time.