Fast Running Blog

Sudden needle like sensation in my run today. 4 miles at 6:45, then I planned on hitting a nice easy 6 at 7:30ish pace to finish the week off. 2 miles into the easy 6 I had this sudden needle like sensation in my ankle between the achilles tendon and the bottom portion of my fibula. The area between feels swollen and sore. What is this, and if I stay off this how likely am I going to be able to run my marathon next weekend?

I have no idea what it is, but I do know that you are at your taper period so can rest it a lot.  Rest, rest, rest.  Take 2-3 days off, if it makes it feel better.  I have gotten injuries 3 weeks before my marathon and have done 2.5 weeks of cross training (deep water running and elliptical) and still done great at the marathon. 

Often times right before a marathon you get "phantom injuries" is what I call them.  And they make you panic and think how am I going to run a marathon with this pain.  But most times you don't feel it at all in the marathon.  Just take it easy this week, do some icing in the affected area, and light stretching.  Maybe get a massage early in the week and hopefulling it won't bug you.

I'll just second what everyone else has said Jeff. It's weird how those phantom injuries pop up during that week or 2 before a big race so I hope this is one of those things. But like Jon said at this point you've done the hard part of the training and if you have to forego a few miles between now and the race you should still be fine.

But I also have to mention that I have a good running buddy who injured his achilles BAD about 6 weeks before the marathon and he insisted on still running the race after doing some very aggressive PT beforehand. He had a great race but messed things up so bad he hasn't been able to do any meaningful running since. So be smart and listen your body. The phantom stuff usually pops up near the beginning or middle of a run but will usually disappear shortly thereafter. I think deep down we can tell if an injury is something we can run on of the phantom variety or something meaningful that could be debilitating.

I just don't know what to make of this one. It didn't have that 'that's odd' phantom feel to it. It was quite painful, which is why I got right off it, walked to a friends house and called my wife to pick me up. The good news is that walking on it isn't painful. The bad news is I can clearly identify the precise area of discomfort with my thumb. At this point I'm planning on staying completely off it until Tuesday or Wednesday. I'll give it a test then and re-evaluate.

I noticed that you do relatively few miles and very fast. Your half-marathon race pace is about 7:00 mile. Yet I saw no runs at paces slower than 7:41, and many in 6:50s. So you essentially have been running your half-marathon race pace or faster in almost every workout. When you do something like this, there are two dangers. If your neurological fitness exceeds your structural fitness (muscles, bones, tendons, ligaments), you get injured. If it is the other way around, you just start feeling flat for no reason because your nervous system is tired.

I would recommend running most of your mileage at no faster than 8:00 mile pace. Hit your race pace no more often than a couple of times a week. If you have not yet qualified for Boston, I see no reason to ever run faster than 6:00 pace in any workout even if you can.

Sasha,

Last week was my taper week. I was keeping the mileage down and the intensity up. Did I go too intense? I've been between 65 and 70 mpw for the last 5 weeks or so, with an average of about 45-55 mpw from July through the end of February with the exception of a a few weeks I had some hamstring stuff going on. The marathon is Sunday. What do you recommend I do the rest of this week? Do I just stay off it completely or do I test it out a bit here and there?

Two weeks out from St. George last year I had a very real pain in my ankle, and it hurt!  Then I went and ran the next day and it still hurt very bad for about 400m, then it subsided and went totally away within the first mile.  It was a very real pain which ended up being one of the freaky phantom pains that went away.  Tendons are scary, though.  Tom's friend is also my good friend and I am heartbroken that he is not able to run because of not listening to his body.  I think there is no harm in testing out the leg every other day a couple of times but if the pain persists I would consider not doing the marathon and getting medical help sooner than later.

Jeff:
In this situation I would do the opposite of high intensity and low mileage. Keep running a decent mileage if your achilles will allow you, but keep it all at 8:00 pace. When testing it, go no faster than 7:00 and for no longer than a mile.  8:00 pace is also good because it allows you to use less carbs and calms down your nerves as well. So you should be able to fuel up very well in spite of running some extra miles.
Even when healthy, though, when we talk about higher intensity, it would be something like 2 miles at 10 K race pace instead of 5 miles at half-marathon race pace for your tempo run, or cutting down your long  run to 13 miles, and making a part of it brisk. You should still not run fast every day.