Did I go too far Jack?

After walking like Redd Foxx on Sanford and Son for the past two days, I decided to ask my training coach, Jack, if I'd pushed myself too hard too soon:

My email:

Hi Jack, Whew! Though I didn't experience any pain during today's run, I think that I may have pushed myself too hard, as the outside of my left knee has some soreness and I can't seem to straigten it completely. I have real difficulty gaging when I am pushing myself past my limits (this is probably due to my 8 yr gymnastics career where you are supposed to push yourself beyond and through any pain). In regards to imposing limits on myself as I begin to do runs on my own, when should I stop running and take a walk/break?

Thanks,
Jennell

Jack's email:

Hi Jennell,

Make sure you take it easy this week, keep your runs very slow and comfortable. After hard workouts like our Saturday long runs, and later on our Wednesday speed/hill workouts, a little ice on your problem areas immediately afterwards will be beneficial.

All those cliches your gymnastics coach told you, like "No pain, no gain" and "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" are completely inappropriate for endurance running - especially for someone training to complete their first event. You have eight months to build up to the Chicago Marathon. You're not going to make it if you kill
yourself every time you run - no one's body could handle that. Even the elite marathoners do their long training runs slow (relatively).

Holding back and running comfortably is one of the hardest things to learn. Adopting a run/walk strategy may be the way to go. I think almost every first-time marathoner should seriously consider this. There are a lot of different ways to adopt a run/walk program - ranging from utilizing it on every run or only on longer runs, and I'll be happy to talk to you about this next time. The idea is to find an interval that works for you, it can be 5 minutes running then two minutes walking, or 10 minutes running and one minute walking for example, and then doing it from the beginning of the run. The idea is by periodically changing to a walking stride you are giving some of your legs muscles a chance to rest. The key is to do this from the beginning of the run. What you don't want to do is wait until you get tired before you start walking. By then the damage has been done.

See you next weekend,

Jack

-Jennell