Pages

Friday, January 20, 2017

Recovery week and transitioning to the next race

It's Thursday, and I'm still sore. Actually, my recovery has been awful, with Tuesday being especially bad. My quads hurt so much on Tuesday that I had to bump down stairs on my rear. I'm not exaggerating.
Why so bad this time? Well, I think there are a few reasons:
1. I was undertrained (I mean, I hit the wall. I wasn't ready for the distance). I had 229 miles in December, but just 119 and 146 in October and November, respectively. I wasn't physically ready.
2. I didn't eat enough post-race. Usually I'm starving the day after a marathon, and eat plenty of carbs and protein to aid in muscle recover. But this time the worst thing that could happen, did: I caught a stomach bug. As soon as we got home from Baton Rouge, David started complaining that his head hurt. Then he was nauseated and throwing up. By bedtime, I had it, too - and you know it's hard to eat after a race, so I hadn't had that much yet. Normally it's the next day that I get my appetite back, but instead, I spent Monday taking Zofran and trying not to throw up. I had half a bagel all day. I think that made a huge difference in my recovery.

I do have to start thinking about my next race, though. It's February 5th - right around the corner! That means that I kind of have to run long this weekend - IF I'm feeling up to it. I think I will: the muscle pain is almost gone. But I am going to play it by ear. So here is my race-the-next-marathon plan:

If I feel good Saturday: 16 long this weekend.
Next week: back to speed, tempo, and 10-mile long run.
Race week: taper.

If I feel ok Saturday: 10 mile long run this weekend.
Next week: No speed on Tuesday, but do Thursday tempo, and 8-mile long run.
Race week: taper.

If I feel tired Saturday: 8 mile long run this weekend.
Next week: No speed on Tuesday, but Thursday tempo, and 8 mile long run.
Race week: taper.

The plan is to hopefully do one solid week to get back on track, then rest again for the next race. I'm sure this will be very interesting!

1 comment:

  1. Like you, I am having a hard time recovering from my race this past weekend. I only ran a half, and not nearly as fast as you, but I too was undertrained and think that made a big difference. This half was my longest run since my last half in October and I only had a few weeks of build up to it. Most of my miles this week have been easy but I slogged through a tempo yesterday. Mostly I just want to sleep and eat a lot, and the tempo made me tired for the rest of the day.

    Love how you have 3 different options/plans depending on how you feel. That's a really smart way to do things!

    ReplyDelete