Running Buddy + Race Recovery

Something fabulous has occurred.  I may have met a running buddy sole mate for realsies this time. :)  I joined the Daily Mile a few weeks ago.  A girl added me as a friend (or I added her, either way it was FATE hah).  After looking at her training runs and race times I realized we were pretty much exactly the same speed.  Of course she was coming to this same realization at the same time and sent me a message letting me know that very information.  :)  After reading through her blog secretly (while she was also reading through my blog secretly) we deemed ourselves new best friends, without meeting, or actually speaking in person.  My god runner's are odd, no?

She was one of my best cheerleaders from afar during race weekend, and Monday night we planned an ice cream date to talk all about the race as well as her upcoming Fargo marathon (May 22nd).  Uh...ice cream....running talk?  Jenn, if you didn't have a hubby, I probably would've proposed to you right then and there!  If you aren't already reading her blog, here's another Jeri-endorsed-read-this-blog-yo!  PurpleShoe Runs If anything head there to read her race report from Fargooooooooo which I'm sure will be up soon if it isn't already!!  I can't wait until we're both recovered from our 'thons and can actually do the running buddy shiz. :D  [If I was a good blogger, I would've brought my camera and there'd be a smiling picture of us inserted right here, but I'm not, so use your imagination.]

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Recovery has been not so fun.  You mean you can't run during recovery, wth?  Ok, I knew that, but I had this strange idea it was because you wouldn't want to run, not because you were physically unable to.  I spent some major time with Mr. Ice Pack Monday through Thursday.  I also did some mad stretching especially in the mornings when I felt like a creaky old lady.  Thursday I decided to take out Miss Polly and ride my bike to work (since I would be unable to on Friday which is actually Bike to Work day in my city).  Conveniently I live a nice 5k from work.  Yes, I know I'm blessed to live that close, hence why I drive like 10 miles/month. :p  By the time I got to work my quads were tiiiiiiired.  I think they were still in recovery mode plus biking into the wind with one gear is never an easy task. :)  Biking home was a breeze.  Literally, I had the wind at my back.  Did you know everyone smiles at a girl with a bright yellow bike?  It's fact.

I finally got my first run in Friday after work in holy crap it's hot weather.  Seriously.  I thought I was wearing pants and a jacket last week on my runs???  What's with this 80-90 degrees?  When I started out, I immediately started to feel all the places that were aching the latter parts of the marathon.  My hips felt like they needed replacing and my IT bands didn't take long until they were tired.  I stuck with the plan and did an easy 2 mile route, stopping at .75 to stretch stretch stretch, and stretching really well when I got home.  After stretching round 1, everything felt really great, except the IT bands were still pretty tight.  When I got home I had a nice little date with my rolling pin (which I had forgotten to bring to Green Bay with me, UGH!)  Hurts. So. Good.

I did 2 miles in 18:52 for a pace of 9:26.
1. 9:33
2. 9:19