Charlotte's marathon: dealing with injury

Here we are the start of March with less than 2 months to go until the big day! Scared, excited and feeling all the emotions but I wanted to share my journey and how it is going so far. So what has happened in the last month?

Well it has not been plain sailing if I’m honest after an injury I have had the last 2 weeks of resting, having sports massages and talking to some professionals about how to get back on the road.

A niggle in my knee

So I thought it was only right for me to share exactly what happened and how I got injured… It all happened 2 weeks ago when I embarked on my 10 mile run first thing in the morning. I woke up, threw my running clothes on, set up my Strava and got straight to running. I was in a rush on that day because I had somewhere to go (which we will get onto later in the story). Up until mile 9 I was feeling great, really enjoying this run listening to podcasts and taking it all in.

I felt strong and motivated until on my last mile I felt a pain in my right knee start to form, I decided to just ignore it as I had one more mile to go and then I could tick 10 miles off my training plan and for my mentality, it is really important for me to see personal progress. This was probably a mistake and I should’ve stopped and walked through the pain, but I carried on running, got home, felt really proud of myself and got ready to go out.

Work hard, play hard

Now at this stage, you will probably want to know where I was going and I’m not sure I should be saying this (but if you know me, you won’t be shocked) but I was going to a bottomless brunch which consists of endless prosecco!

You can't say no to bottomless prosecco!

I know, I know, it’s not exactly the ideal marathon diet but I really didn’t think it would be a problem, I had done my run and now it was time to enjoy myself. Anyway, as you can imagine, after one, two or maybe more glasses I was dancing the night away! I had a great time… until I woke up in the morning with a very sore knee.

As you can imagine, instant panic set in and  I started thinking ‘what have I done?’ I consulted Dr Google, which told me to pop ice on the area and hope for the best.

Recovery takes time

Fast forward a couple of days of rest and I was still feeling worse for wear so it was time to pick up the phone and book in a sports massage. Did I tell the lady what had happened and why my knee was feeling this way? Not quite the whole truth, I was a little embarrassed but I asked for her advice on how I might be able to recover, as I was anxious I needed to get my miles in. I had the massage and she gave me so much information on how I can prevent these incidents in the future (apart from the obvious).

Now I have always heard that stretching is so important and people always tell me to do this but I had never made time to fit this into my training. I am someone who lives life at 100 miles an hour and I didn’t realise the importance of it until now.

I now have a big range of stretches to do before and after my runs but also to incorporate into my daily life. So after a further week of rest, massages and stretches I am back and ready to pick up my training again!

Learning from my mistakes

What have I learnt? To stretch, stretch and stretch again,  take my time and don’t rush my runs! It is important to enjoy the marathon training process throughout and that means keeping my fun times as well as focusing on my running. As long as I am eating right, stretching and resting as well as upping my mileage I will be okay.

Now off to take on 12 miles…