Marathon in 3 weeks - recovering from injury

[flippant]

Hi all.

I'm only just now recovering from an injured hip flexor and went for my first run in two weeks today (3 miles). I felt fine and kept a good 8:00/mile pace. My breathing was much heavier than it normally is at this pace, but I take it that's due to being off my legs for two weeks.

Before the injury, I was up to doing 20k runs. I'm very short on time if I want to ramp it up even farther than that in the time I have left (including a taper of about a week), so I'm asking for your advice.

What would be the best way to prepare for a marathon on the 7th of January?

I've been running since September with this marathon in mind, and would hate to miss out on it - but I'm not going to injury myself running it, either.

[monkeyshoes]

Take it easy, I would follow the doctors recomendations, when one has to rest for some times, as it happend to me, a too quick effort can worsen it for a longer period of time,
be well

[jmijares]

Yeah, definitely take it easy.  If you run the marathon you risk injuring yourself even more and you really could be sidelined for a while.

[munisano]

I'd say don't skimp on your recovery and definitely SKIP the marathon.  There are plenty of races out there for when you are ready and healed up.  Try to come back too soon and you risk knocking yourself out of the sport completely!  I totally can relate to how bad it sucks to miss an event you've been training and building up for due to injury.  But believe me, you'll be so much better off being a bit more conservative coming back.

[The Yeti]

I've also been there, with a knee injury. I opted to skip the event that I was supposed to run, and allowed myself to heal completely before running again. I am back to running more than I was when got injured. I wasn't happy about missing the race, but in the end a full recovery was more important than struggling through the race.

The injury wasn't related to running, but it stopped me from running. It really is best to listen to your body, and if you don't know if you can make it without hurting yourself, then don't. You will definitely regret trying to ignore your injury.

[flippant]

Well, this is depressing.

Went for another run yesterday (3 miles again).

Now my knee is acting up. I slipped and fell onto concrete in a metro station about two weeks ago, and have had a sore spot just below my right knee ever since. It doesn't hurt when I walk, but I think there's a slight inflammation there that leads to discomfort after the repeated stress of running on it.

Shit, balls and ass.

I do have another marathon lined up, but it's not until late June, and as far as I know, there aren't any other races around (China). The only reason I'm in the city I'm in now is because of the marathon. I would rather be somewhere warmer