Twisted ankle and two weeks until NY marathon, advise please - Training

Tarquin Tarquin

18/10/2012 at 13:41

I'm a 43 year old male and I run between 35-45 miles per week, training for new york has gone really well to date and I've missed no sessions (including a 20 miles last sunday). Last night while out I managed to twist my ankle, it's sore today but I'm sure it will recover in time for New York marathon in 18 days. My question is if I miss these last two weeks, will it have much effect on my overall fitness?

JeremyG

18/10/2012 at 13:47

Not much no. Better to rest it - it is now all about arriving on the start line fit and healthy. You could always try some x training or swimming to maintain fitness and keep those mad tapirs at bay.

Run Wales

18/10/2012 at 13:53

I'm no expert... but from what I've read, the average super keen runner cannot bring themselves to taper enough. If you're one of them, then an enforced rest might actually help!

I trust you're following the normal RICE treatment.

And if I had one other piece of obvious advice, you've spent loads on plane tickets, hotel, etc etc.... why not treat yourself to a few quid on a good sports physio.

Wish you all the best.

Edited: 18/10/2012 at 13:55

Tarquin Tarquin

18/10/2012 at 14:16

Doing all the obvious, RICE etc, will try swimming to maintain my fitness in the coming weeks....

stutyr

18/10/2012 at 14:24

As others have said, rest will be the best thing for you. You complete your last long run, so you'd be in maintenance mode at the moment if you were fit & healthy.

I remember reading something about it taking two weeks for your body to incorporate the training effect, so you can't improve your race performance in the last two weeks (but it is possible to adversely affect it). Whilst doing a quick google to try and find the source, I found this article about the effect of breaks in training which helps quantify the impact:

http://runnersconnect.net/running-injury-prevention/losing-running-fitness/

As it says, a couple of weeks isn't going to have a significant impact

Tarquin Tarquin

18/10/2012 at 18:39

Thanks for the advice, feel alot more confident about the race

Catalin Bond

19/10/2012 at 22:50

I twisted my ankle twice, once 3 weeks before a half, and again 2 weeks before. I ran the half fine, so hope it works out well for you too. One piece of advice I was given after the second sprain, was to do ankle rehab exercises, as one reason I went over again was because it was weakened by the first sprain.

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