Ice baths!

I injured my lower back last year. The only thing that helps is complete rest. I have aggravated it twice since then and have learned my lesson. If I shut down I come back quicker and healthier. If I try to work through it by lowering the intensity of the workouts it just lingers.

Many aches and pains allow you to train through them, but a back injury is not one of them. One of the things I hope to never hear from my doctor is the word chronic when discussing any injury I might have, especially when I have had some control over the situation.

Ice baths:

Every day after every run...I swear by these things. Fill a tub with cold water so that it will cover your legs when you sit in, then dump in a bag of ice. This will hurt for about a minute, then you'll go numb and it won't bother anymore. Stay in about fifteen minutes.

In addition, you should ice the injuries (ice packs!) a few times a day. Time off will help you heal for sure, but I don't know how much pain it is or what's causing it, so it might be something you can safely run through, too. I know that I hate taking time off, but I just came back from achilles tendonitis, and with only two weeks' rest and lots of ice, I'm fine and working my way back up to 50 miles/wk. However, I don't have any races coming up.

I think someone mentioned before in another post to try icing it, or even dipping yourself in an ice bath. Tell us if it works for you.

Since you're seeing a PT, it sounds like he/she may be better informed and qualified to answer your question. Since you seem to have so many injuries, with so much pain, something bigger has got to be going on and you need to take a serious rest after your marathon and investigate your problems to their source (its easy to treat symptoms but they will always come back in some form or another until you fix the cause) with a PT or sports med doc.

As far as up until your marathon goes, continue an easy taper. You've put in the miles, now is the time to take it easy so your body can do the work in a few weeks. Stretch as you're supposed to, get in your light running and cross training so long as it doesn't hurt too much. Ice and advil after you work out and try again before you go to bed. There generally aren't shortcuts to easy healng, and those who try to take them will usually end up hurting worse in the long run, so keep that in mind.
Good luck with the taper and put faith in your body that it knows how to do the work and it'll ttake you there, you just got to treat it well right now.

One thing that was always drilled into us in college by our chemistry prof, of all things, was that anyone who is a strict vegetarian is missing out on a few of the essential amino acids used for building that are only found in red meat or supplements.

Not remembering what they are off the top of my head, but I'll check when I'm home and try to get some more specific information...they are our basic building blocks, after all.

Being vegetarian, basically you just need to watch your protien input a bit more strictly than usual...making sure you're getting enough of the right type, or supplementing to make up for it as we put our bodies through a lot broader range of strain than many lifestyles.

I believe the essential amino acid you're looking for is methionine. But it is found in milk, eggs, etc. I'm not positive on this, I took nutrition a few years ago, but I think soy is the only complete protein found in non-meat sources. But anyways, even if I'm wrong about that, just make sure you are getting enough protein. Its essential to repair muscles. You need 1.5g or so per kilo body weight, I believe. The research is all over the map for that number (1-2g / bw kg) and too much won't hurt you (or help you).

I second what people have been saying about the ice bath. Put a few inches of cold water in your tub and add a few bags of ice. The trainers at my high school always kept their ice bath between 50-55F if you are taking the temperature. 15-20 min in there after every run does wonders. Its freezing and uncomfortable, but it does a much more complete job of taking away soreness than ice packs do.

Thanks all-
I am taking today entirely off, and visiting with family for the holidays.
Hell, I might take every day off until Sunday, do my 10-12 mile long run, see how it feels, and just keep resting until I feel strong. Even then, I know I'm not 100% (as the body tricks us into thinking its healed, when its just barely ready)
I've done this thing before, I did 21 last sunday, and a 20 4 weeks before that, I know I can handle it, but darn it, I want to be strong. And maybe being a little undertrained will make me stronger in the long run.
I've scheduled to have new orthotics cast after disney, as they are quite old. And Im buying new shoes tonight, as I have over 600 miles on them.
I only mention this, because it could largely be one of the "deeper" problems with my training.
I have begun drinking a soy protein shake every day, to really hammer by protein intake.
So I"m getting about 30% of my calories from it right now. If anyone wants to look at my nutrition, I can show you on fitday.com
Let me know if you want the password.