Twin Cities Marathon Recovery

The week after Twin Cities, I rested a lot! I foam rolled 2x a day, every day until Thursday when I was down to just once. I did POWER on Thursday and had every intention of joining the coffee run for my first recovery run but I smoked my knee on a chair on Thursday and there was some swelling and discomfort Friday morning when I woke up. Oops. I did get in a super easy 2 mile on Saturday and continued to rest on Sunday! #rest

Monday: 5 Mile Monday with Chris! I had hoped for 4-5 and after the first ten steps my legs felt really good, so 5 it was.

Tuesday: Rest day.

Wednesday: 605 Group Recovery Run. It was so gorgeous out so we went a little further than originally planned.

Thursday: Rest.

Friday: Coffee run! 4.1 recovery miles with Kristin.



Saturday: I was supposed to do a longer run, but I woke up before yoga and just felt like I needed to SLEEP so I went back to bed and bailed on my running buddy. I felt cruddy the rest of the weekend, so no run for me.

Sunday: More rest.

Marathon Recovery

After the Bemidji Blue Ox Marathon, I gave myself two weeks of recovery.

Day 1 (Sunday) was full recovery, minus walking down the dock (OMG SO MANY STAIRS!) to take pictures of the sunrise. And then sitting in a car for a trillion hours driving home.

Day 2 (Monday) was another full recovery day of doing nothing other than snuggling with the pug. I did make the trek downtown to pick up celebratory sushi and sign up for the 605 Running Co. group! I had to park really far away from the running store, so I got in at least 4 blocks of walking.

Day 3 (Tuesday) was another recovery day back at work. I had two storytimes in the morning, so I got in lots of stretching/dancing with the kiddos. I did sit out of the crowd favorite jumping and counting for my knees' sake.

Day 4 (Wednesday) I finally went out for my first run after a foam rolling session. I did 2.7 miles of slow jogging with walk and stretch breaks. My knees were super stiff and painful to start, but warmed up after about a half mile of jogging. My legs felt insanely heavy.

Day 5 (Thursday) I picked up a Burlesque workout video from the library and did that for 45 minutes. It was laughable. Somewhat fun, but for the most part I felt like a fool.

Day 6 (Friday) I attended a 60 minute hot vinyasa at a nearby studio.

Day 7 (Saturday), Day 8 (Sunday), Day 9 (Monday) were all rest days. My allergies and sinuses finally caught up with me. I went to work on Saturday and went to sleep within 20 minutes of coming home. And slept for 12 hours. And repeat after work Sunday. Uff.

Day 10 (Tuesday) was another 3 mile day. My legs felt dramatically better. My knee (L) was stiff for the first couple of minutes.

Day 11 (Wednesday) I spent 60 minutes with a smile on my face in restorative yoga. By far my favorite way to spend an hour of the day.



Day 12 (Thursday), Day 13 (Friday), Day 14 (Saturday) were all rest days apparently. I had an emergency "Help me find a dress to wear for my wedding reception party!!" on Thursday, Friday Kyle and I actually went out with friends, and Saturday I felt the effects of Friday night out with friends and then had the aforementioned wedding reception party. Woof.

Day 15 (Sunday) I finally convinced myself to go to yoga sculpt. And it almost killed me. I'm sore in places I didn't know existed. Holy moly.

After yoga sculpt, I stayed around for the restorative class I'm obsessed with. Except when you destroy every muscle in your body from sculpt, restorative is anything but easy and/or recovery. Uff.

Noted.

This was the gorgeous sunset as I left the studio. 

May in Review + Recovered Legs

May in Review

Total Miles:  87.6 down from 163.6 last month.  (96.7  miles from May 2010.)
Total Time:  14:05:55 down from 26:03:49  (15:04:50 last May.)
Total Runs: 14 for an average of 6.26 miles/run
Highest weekly mileage:Favorite run: 

5/16/2011 — 5/22/2011:

31.2 Mi

5:12:03

Bike Miles:  8.5.  Look out Lance.
Favorite Jams: Meh, anything that blocked out my internal whining/lamenting/woe is me during the marathon.  ;)
________________
So thanks for all the kind slash OMG GROSSSSSSSSSSs comments on my monster eye infection.  It looks 1000x better, and feels better too.  But it's definitely still messed up.  Oh well.  I have another eye, right?!!?  jk (I take my eye health very seriously...... but $180 for a 15 min eye doc visit and insanely expensive Rx.... I'll wait it out a smidge....)

I'm tentatively following the Hal Higdon post-marathon training program, I say tentatively because my legs have felt like butt hole so I've been pretty conservative with my miles and my pace.  Tuesday I set out for a very windy run expecting to have yet another slog fest.  Color me shocked when my legs felt BACK TO NORMAL.  At one point my "easy" pace was marathon pace (@#$%()#$%@#*($%*#($)%).  Yes.  Drama.  Me.  I knew the wind was at my back for the start of the run, and figured that's why it felt so effortless, but was even more shocked when I turned around and was able to maintain my pace against the wind without it affecting my heart rate too much.  Neato burrito.

For shits and gigs I threw in 4x100 m strides during the final mile to see how the hip/IT bands would take it.  Swimmingly.  HOLY GUACAMOLE, I MIGHT BE RECOVERED!!!  Only took 11 days, but whatev.  And good thing too, because I think I found my next race.  Just a little local 5k, but it's on my 1/2 birthday.  YAYZIES!

Sidenote:  I was telling KK that my 1/2 birthday was coming up and was all excited when it hit me.... crap....... 
J:  At what point do I have to stop celebrating my half birthdays?  [with pouty lip and puppy dog eyes...]
KK:  Definitely NOT 27 1/2!
Just another reason I keep that kid around. :DMost hardcore run: 
Favorite Race: I wish I could say it was the Fargo Marathon where I sub-4 and glitterfarted up the course.  But I didn't.  So I won't.  I did have a pretty g.d. good time at the Avera 10k though, and didn't die on my first 10k ever, and MAYBE even sparked a new favorite race distance.  So there's that, at least.

Marathon Recovery and Weekly Wishlist

So turns out that recovery is pretty g.d. boring.  Saturday post race I was legitimately concerned that I had done something major to my knee.  I was unable to straighten it or bend it completely without intense shooting pain.  Luckily by Sunday the pain had subsided to normal post-marathon aches.

As of Tuesday, my hip felt 100% but I still had a lot of pain and soreness around my hip flexor/hip area in my right leg along with some knee pain.  After some rolling, I decided to take princess leia out for a short little spin to get the blood flowing in my legs.  8.5 windy miles later (can't escape the wind EVER apparently) I was finally able to walk normally!  YAYZIES!  I had some initial pressure under my kneecaps for the first 1/2 mile, but after that the ride was great.  Of course Wednesday brought some random hip shooting pains while just sitting at work, so who knows what's going on.

All I know is that this girl needs her endorphins!

Before I bring you to this week's wishlist, please visit Kristin's blog!  She is running NYC Marathon (her first!) as a part of Team World Vision and is seeking out your help for donations.  Please check out her page and donate generously.  If you need further convincing, she's a huge Packers fan too, so clearly she's a great gal.  I mean... her dog is named Lambeau.... sigh... a girl after my own heart.  ;)  KILL IT KRISTIN!

Buy it now.

Interesting fun fact:  I was a NERDY with a capital -ERDY kid.  Amongst many other dorky things, I was obsessed with dinosaurs.  What's that?  You heard I had an extensive dinosaur eraser collection?  Well.  That may be correct.  Quiz me on some dino facts, let's see if I still got it.  Anywhosits, this necklace is probably the sweetest thing ever.  (too bad it's waaaaaaaay too expensive).

Buy it here.

I definitely don't consider myself a very girly-girl, but I love a pretty/flirty skirt.  This one is so adorable.

Buy it here.

My bfff wore a similar dress to a high school classmates wedding last summer, and clearly I'm still lusting after it.  She had a gorgo tan going, and the blue looked killer next to it.  Sheans!  I'm going to borrow this sometime this summer, k thx lovvvvve you. 

Buy it here.

The girl in green strikes again!  Love this shade of green, probably my favorite (whoa! that's saying a lot!) and love that it's cutesy but still laidback.