Marathon Training

I liked springrrrr's idea with the tips for a 10K/half marathon, so I thought I would start one for the full marathon.

I also wanted to ask for advice when dealing with knee pain while training.  I know that you need to push yourself but I also know that you need to be careful not to push too hard to avoid being plagued by injuries.  I have recently started feeling some pain (not excrutiating yet) during my longer runs.  I was wondering how much knee pain is too much and what should I be doing before/after runs to help prevent this from getting worse?  I try to run on trails or dirt when I can, but eventually I need to get used to pavement anyway because the marathon I am planning on running is all pavement (I think). I just took almost an entire week off, but as soon as I did a long run again, the pain came back.

jonescr4,

It is best to do a lot of leg stretching before and after your runs then ice your knees the soonest you can after running.  I injured my left knee during a half marathon race I participated back in April on a downhill slope for going too fast, it took me at least a month to recovery from it and when I'm running long distance now, I can still feel a little bit of pain so I wear a knee wrap every time I do a longer distance run. 

I am currently in training for a full marathon right now and our coach keeps reminding us to use our core all the time to lessen the impact on our legs when running.  I am also doing yoga and some core exercises during the week which really helps me on my long runs.

You can also search the internet for the kind of stretches you can pre and post run that are more beneficial to your knees. 

You should not force yourself to run if the pain becomes unbearable while running - you may be getting your mileage up but you might be putting more damage to your knees which could take longer to heal then you'll miss out more on running.

Good luck.

thanks for the advice - I had never heard of the core training as a way to reduce impact on legs - I will have to start incorporating more of these workouts into my routine

   Dot is right never push "through the pain" because you might not make it to the other side. I know its hard especially for a runner like yourself but backing off (cut some miles)for a week or two might help. When I was training for the marathon I took a hint from Jeff Galloways book and made my "long run" once every 2 weeks instead of weekly. And backed off on my speed workouts-those KILLED my knees. As a high school runner you were taught no pain no gain but in reallity most of the time this does more damage than good. Besides they were talking about the pain that comes from not being able to catch your breath(normal) NOT throbing pain in your knees or bone structure. Remember, the miricle is not that you completed a marathon the miricle is that you had the courage to try----good luck