Megan Thompson

6 days away from a marathon run and I dread seeing you every night. Why do you cause so much pain. Everyone says the more time you and I spend together the less painful it will become but that doesn't seem to be happening. The pain in the knee comes from the IT band in my leg and you are supposed to be the magic cure. Runners knee...the tension and tightness of muscles. The idea behind the foam roller is to use your body weight to "self massage" the areas that are bothering you. For me this is a dreaded event and HURTS lol. I know that the more I do it the less pain I will have while running but let me tell you that is not an easy thing to tell myself with that silly piece of foam digging into my legs. So my friend you may have your grips on me for the next 6 days but after that you and I need some time apart :).

Well there are officially 13 days left before my marathon run! I am so anxious for it to get here. The past 5 months of training have been long but are paying off now. I've wanted to run a marathon since 2010 and for one reason or another it's taken me 4 years to finally get there....but I am here and I'm ready. After I ran the two half marathons I did I never really thought about what I was supposed to do afterward. So I started doing a little research into what you should do for your body after a marathon and came up with the following tips that I found most helpful :)

1. Rest for 1-3 days...no running.

2. Soak in a hot tub for 10-15 mins and stretch

3. Carbs and protein help to repair muscle damage.

4. Light massages are helpful.

5. Days 4 -7 you can run one day approx 2-4 miles and 2 days of light cardio just to loosen the legs up.

6. Espsom salt baths are helpful.

7. Days 7 -14 3 or 4 days running approx 4-6 miles. 3 days of cross training.

So for all of you first time runners out there I hope this is helpful. :)