Recovery Week

Courtesy of Layton Photography 

Per usual, I feel like I have been run over by a bus post marathon. I really wish I could recover so quickly like so many of my running friends, but it is what it is and I have to listen to my body.  I was pretty wiped out post marathon and the next day,  and while I wanted to just lay around and do nothing, the Tulip festival was in town and my hubby had to work, so I was in charge of the kiddo for the day.  That meant mostly sitting at the bounce houses watching my kiddo bounce, but also a fair amount of walking around looking at crafts, art, and mostly junk that i don't need, but I buy anyway.  In some ways it is good to stay moving, but in other ways, OUCH.

Courtesy of Layton Photograpy

I also have been thinking a lot about the good and the bad of my performance.  There was so much good and very little bad, which is nice.  The good?  Well, I got in 5 waffles this time with minimal nausea, which is one an hour.  The last one was a bit of a struggle, but I got er down.  I am trying to keep this in mind so that if I do a 50 miler and it takes me 10-11 hours, I can still keep up with what I know works.  I feel like I will need to alternate with something not so sweet with my waffles so that the sweetness doesn't get old.

Another good is that I also only looked at my watch for fueling times.  I need to figure out how to program my watch to beep at me every hour so I don't need to even do that.  Garmin experts, help?  I also never once mentally beat myself up about anything, mainly because Stella was there just smiling away and dang it, it was contagious.  Looking at her face brought a smile to my face any time I felt otherwise, but honestly I never felt a bonk or any big negative feelings.

The rain wasn't fun for the entirety of the race, but my gear was spot on.  I was never cold other than my hands. I think I needed a lighter weight glove that maybe couldn't hold so much water, as the air temperature wasn't that bad.

Courtesy of Layton Photograpy

The bad?  I wished that I wasn't always so sore when I get done running marathons. I think this is mostly due to me not doing enough strength training and enough hill training.  I knew going in that this race was super hilly and I never did get to any hillier routes, so that is all on me.  I would like it if just ONE training cycle would allow me to stay motivated and serious about strength training to see if that helped.  I am 3 days out now and feeling much, much better, especially after my rather painful massage today.  My hip feels one thousand times better and my foot also is feeling much better.   I need to make a decision and make it quickly.  Two things could be causing my PF.  Both of my peroneals  were super duper tight and required much work.  My bringer of pain Doug, who also is the man massage man for the KSU track team, thinks that could be the cause of the PF, since it does basically provide a stirrup and go on both sides of my feet.  BUT, it still could also be the newest version of my shoes, since this all started when I started wearing them in earnest.  I can get last years model still on amazon and for half the price, so I could start there and see how it goes, plus add in some more regular massage to get things looser and happier. The scientist in me wants to change one variable at a time so I can have an AHA moment, but the runner in me wants to be back to 100% for the next training cycle quickly.  I will say that the new shoe model is doing weird things to my feet, because i now have calluses on the outsides of my feet even though this shoe is a neutral shoe AND it appears I may loose one of my big toe nails, which has NEVER happened to me in any of the saucony shoes I have had.

Courtesy of William Layton photography

Towards the end of the week, I did get on my bike for a nice slow long ride.  They had re graveled some of my biking route, which was kind of a bummer because it was super loose and made biking a bit tough, but luckily it was only a small fraction of the total road.  I can't wait to get back to biking out on my running route!  I miss my running route when I am not running on it and spring is exciting trying to figure out what they are planting where.

I ended the week with a super slow, super easy 3 miler.  Coach wanted me to get out and just see where my body was at before we decided what this coming week would look like. I took it easy and walked every mile for a tenth, and overall felt great.  I did run in my old sauconys just in case my above theories are correct.  I also very quickly upon getting done, put on compression sleeves and my PF sleeve as well as iced my heel.  My hip was a little tight, but I plan on getting one more massage before I crank training back up.  I am going to take it super easy for a few weeks and get through my pacing duties before we turn up the heat for the fall races!  I am hoping this will be the break that my body and mind need to get through these injuries and my mental blocks on tough speed work.  I will admit, I really enjoyed a week of staying up late and sleeping in, eating some bad things and having beer whenever I wanted to. 

Have a great week!