To think all this exercise might not actually be that good for me?

[forward]

I'm training for a marathon. I do 2 Pilates classes and a Body Balance per week, which are great, hardish, but relaxing and perfect for stretching and strengthening the bit runners need. That's fine, but the running is killing me.

I've been running for about 5 years at around 25 miles per week, but this is my first marathon. I've been building up miles slowly in line with all the expert advice and did 18 miles this afternoon. I finished at 3pm and even now, I can honestly say I have never felt so bad in my life. Everything hurts, I still feel sick and can't stop coughing. I almost hope I'm sickening for something, (rather than it being the running iyswim) if it carries on like this I'll never make 26!

You are over-training. You need to rest until you feel better so have a day or two off. You might well have a virus too so def rest til that goes then build up with shorter runs again. Does your run program include rest days usually?

Ive trained for 2 marathons and 6 halfs and am a coach and I always suggest yoga, but one class a week is enough with all your other training. Just make sure you do basic run stretches after each run.

Most people do their long runs (up to 19 miles) on a weekend exactly so they can recover, eat plenty, lie on the sofa, so you need to plan that in to your day.

Thanks new girl, yes I only run 4 days per week. Do the classes mostly on other days, but always have one day off completely per week.

The runs are 45 mins of speedwork with my club, a one hour (7milesish) fast run with the club. An easy 5-8miles and then a long slow run. I thought I was getting that about right!

My schedule eases back this week and I'm "only" set to do 15m for my next long run.

I do my long runs on Monday afternoon because apart from getting dinner I can pretty much rest afterwards. Weekends tend to be quite busy for us.

nausea and coughing are pretty unusual symptoms of over doing it, Sounds more likely that you just have a bit of a low level bug and the exercise brought it out a bit. It's very, very unlikely if you're gradually building up that you're over-training. Even if the individual run today was a little over-reaching (over reaching you might need an extra day off or lighter training, over-training is disastrous)

Aches are pretty normal I'm afraid as you first adapt to new activities (or just more of what you do). Stretching may help mentally, but scientific studies don't show much actual physical difference, but after training they equally don't hurt either.

It does sound you're getting it about right to me - see how you feel after the 15miler next week (assuming you don't feel worse this week) I suspect it'll be a lot better as you adapt to the longer efforts.