A few weeks into the February cold, longtime runner Ryan McGrath felt his motivation plummet.
On a Thursday night in Canton, he and a small group ran six 800-meter repeats — high-intensity runs mixed with lighter recovery periods — on a quiet stretch of Clinton Street, south of Boston Street, with a steady wind in their faces, salt kicking into the air and snow boxing them in on either side. With wind chill, the temperature hovered around zero degrees.
"My momentum and motivation was just crushed," said McGrath, founder of the Team That's What She Said running group. He finished that Thursday night and convinced himself to get out for a run most other days, too, but mental anguish and physical aches caused by ice, snow and cold were unavoidable this winter.
"Myself and a lot of other people started paying the price," he said. "I just have to adjust some goals a little bit."
McGrath, 33, has run for 20 years, including two for the Maryland cross country and track teams, and he said this winter was the worst he tried to train through. As temperatures have risen, the nagging injuries have begun to heal. But some runners who planned on setting personal records in early-spring races — or fulfilling New Year's resolutions — are being forced to re-evaluate.
Deirdre Weadock, manager of Charm City Run in Locust Point and a certified coach through the Road Runners Club of America, said poor conditions forced the cancellation of a few organized training runs in recent weeks, and runners should not expect to be in the same shape they otherwise might have been.
With races in late March and early April looming, it might be time for some to "amend expectations," Weadock said.
"Don't try to make up for two months of training over the next two months," she said. "If you jump from too little to too much, you're setting yourself up for an overuse injury or some burnout. Don't stress about what hasn't happened."
Rushing through a compressed training schedule could, indeed, lead to injury, according to Dr. John H. Wilckens, an orthopedist and associate professor of sports medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine. Achilles tendonitis, plantar fasciitis and lateral knee pain caused by iliotibial band syndrome are the most common injuries for runners at the start of training, he said.
Consistent stretching and ice treatment can remedy most ailments if dealt with early, Wilckens said, but groin pain experienced later in training might be indicative of a more serious injury — a hip stress fracture that could be "near catastrophic."
A moderately fit person usually can train safely for a 5K in a month, a 10K in four to six weeks, a half-marathon in two to three months and a marathon in three months, Wilckens said. Avoiding hill workouts and daily full-effort runs at the start of training can help avoid early injury.
For those who got a late start to training because of the weather, Wilckens suggested interval training — running some miles lightly and others hard during individual outings — as a way to "kick it into gear" more quickly.
"You can still get some training injuries from interval training," he said. "But that's one way you can sneak in extra benefit."
While some struggled, other runners refused to let the winter disrupt their routine. Steve Moore, owner of the Run Moore store in Westminster, managed to get out for a run five or six days a week through the winter, he said, and did so while thumbing his nose at the cold.
"I have this weird streak of running in shorts since 1999," Moore said. "I've worn shorts every day. It's one of those things. I started it in 1999; I can't break it now. I went and ran in shorts the whole time" this winter.
What helped him maintain his pace of training, Moore said, was having a group to fall back on. A member of the Flying Feet running team, Moore said he and others met every Saturday at 7 a.m. to get a long run in.
"If you have a commitment on Saturdays … if you know you have a group to meet with, it doesn't matter what the weather is," Moore said. "You just show up and run. It makes it so much easier."
Jeff Burger, vice president of the Harford County Running Club, said the most difficult part of winter training was getting in speed workouts. With high school tracks covered with a layer of winter muck since February, Burger encouraged runners to get speed work in on the treadmill.
"I don't think you're getting as much" benefit, Burger said. "It's better than nothing."
For some, however, nothing could sound less appealing. Meredith Sullivan, who lives in Canton and makes a habit of running the Inner Harbor promenade, said persistent patches of ice did not force her inside as she trained for a half-marathon.
"I've fallen a couple times. I have some bumps and bruises," she said. "It kind of rattles you a little bit."
After a frustrating winter, Sullivan and others are excited for spring, when the weather warms and there seems to be a local race every weekend. Never mind the snow showers Friday, the first day of the season.
"We're getting to the best part of the year," Moore said. "The best part of the year is this spring season of running."
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