What Training for a Marathon Taught Me by Lisa Thompson
What Training for a Marathon Taught Me by Lisa Thompson
“ For all the girls that don ’ t believe they can do it ( you can !) and all the women that have been my support system- this is for you !”
I
recently ran my first marathon to cross off my bucket list of things I wanted to accomplish before I turned 26 . However , training isn ’ t just the easiest walk in the park , it takes time and focus . It takes mental and physical health .
However , through all the struggles I did encounter I would do it all over again for the lessons I learned .
THE SET BACK A year ago , I was injured training for a marathon . I was devastated , I was on pain meds and could barely walk on my leg . I had to wear flats instead of heels to work , I had to wear a knee brace and ice / heat my knee a lot . More so I would wake up in the middle of the night from pains going through my knee and had to go see two physical therapists to get back into shape . After months and months of working on my leg …. I re- injured it trying to get back to fast . I missed out on runs with my
53 running partners , I missed out on running in general and had to get my health under control . Injuries are very hard to overcome , after getting re- injured my PT explained I needed to stop running and all cardio all together for two months , so I did , it was miserable .
After taking the time off I realized , how stubborn I was being , I wanted to come back so badly , I was sacrificing my health in the future . Through these months , I struggled a lot with pain , my body and trying to figure out what to do . After months of nothing , I was able to get back in it ; I had to re train my body to run because the injury was caused by multiple things that could have been avoided . I decided I needed to train again for a marathon and decided I wanted to run # 26milesfor26years , since I was turning 26 . I signed up for my second marathon , since the first one I never was able to run . Training was going to be twice as hard because before I was way more in shape .
THE TRAINING Michigan is the state I live in and let me tell you our seasons and temperatures are always changing .
So , training was always interesting because I never knew what my long run conditions would be . During the week , I spent lots of time cross training , teaching my spin classes and running short miles . On Saturdays , I spent my mornings running long distance anywhere between 10- 20 miles depending what my training manual said . It was tough , especially after long weeks at work and nights I didn ’ t want to miss out on with friends . Luckily for me I had the best running partners and support systems around . I ran in conditions of rain , snow and ice and only one time of 60-degree weather when I was visiting Texas and had to train for 20 miles .
My body was exhausted after these runs and because of my injury I could not just move onto the next project of the day . After training I had to stretch , ice my knee , take a hot bath , foam roll , drink lots of water and then nap . My body took training this time very different than before . It was just exhausted so I had to deal with not having as much energy .
As the weeks got closer to the event , my schedule got busier