Recovery

This week was all about recovery from the marathon, so not much running.

Sunday night, after the marathon, my legs were so sore that I had a little trouble sleeping. Monday, I was really sore. Walking down stairs... well really just walking in general was hard, but walking down stairs was impossible. I walk around at work a lot and am on my feet a lot of the day, so by the end of the day monday I was ready to get home and rest my legs. I wore my new neon green compression socks (hot!) that I picked up at the race expo all day monday and tuesday. I have to say Tuesday was worse than monday. In addition to soreness my legs really hurt. Being sore and in pain was also starting to make me a little cranky. Luckily, Wednesday morning I woke up and finally felt pretty normal again. I was able to walk down stairs! HORAY! I thought about trying to take a short recovery jog, but decided to give it another day. Thursday I felt pretty good, so I went to the gym and ran on the dreadmill (mainly because I wasn't quite sure how far i'd make it!) for 2.5 miles easy. My legs were still very tired, but it felt good to use them again and I got a good stretch in after my run, then I walked 1.5 miles home, which also felt good. Friday, I decided just walking home from work would be enough. Saturday, I felt like I could have run, but really just wanted to take the opportunity to sleep in as late as I wanted and lay around all day reading. I did manage to drag myself out of bed to go and get a massage (life is rough). It was a very lazy day. Today I felt like a "real" run was in order. I went out for 6 miles and tried to just let my legs run at whatever pace they wanted (yes, they do have a mind of their own). It felt good, but it became apparent around mile 4 that my hamstrings and butt are still very sore. All in all, recovery is going well. Although in doing day to day activities I feel all the way back to normal, running still isn't quite there yet. Supposedly, it take 1 day for every mile of the marathon, so I guess this is normal. This next week i'm going to shoot for 15-20 miles, but basically just try to pay attention to how my body is feeling.

I'm toying with the idea of running a half-marathon in early november... I think i'm in shape for what could be a half-marathon PR... but we'll see how my legs feel over the next few weeks. Other than that I don't think i'm really going to train for any race in particular over the next few months. I've been searching for some fun shorter distance 5Ks and 10Ks to do. Over the winter I'd like to work on some speed, but for now I'm just going to give myself some time to enjoy running without a schedule.

Weekly update for 10/11 - 10/17

Sunday - 6.22 miles

Saturday - nothing

Friday - nothing

Thursday - 2.5 miles

Wednesday - nothing

Tuesday - nothing

Monday - nothing

Weekly Total : A measly 8.72 miles and some well deserved rest!

I am a Marathoner!

Well, I finished the marathon! It didn't go exactly as I had hoped, but i'm happy to have finished and I definitely learned some things from the experience.

(Pretty fall colors at the start)

The weather was absolutely perfect at the start of the race, in the 50's I think. The air felt nice and crisp and refreshing. The race started well. The first 10 miles flew by, easily. The path was beautiful with the fall colors and I was was just enjoying running and looking around at the scenery. I started too fast. Shocking (not!). I had planned on trying to run 9:30 minute miles then slowing down if I needed to. Instead, I ran 9 minute miles and hit the wall at around mile 18. Rookie mistake. I knew I was going too fast, I had been told not to go out too fast, I had been told about the infamous wall. I knew better. Why didn't I run slower at the beginning? For the first 10 miles, a 9 min. mile pace just felt good. It felt comfortable and easy. Around mile 14 I started feeling a little tired and did slow down to the pace I should have been running at the beginning. I think I ran about a 2 hour half.... too fast. The course was two out and back loops with the start and finish in the middle. The first loop went out 9 miles, so when I started feeling fatigued I just thought about getting to mile 17ish to see Daniel cheering for me.

(Just before mile 17....starting to feel tired)

Once I crossed through and started the second out and back loop I really started struggling. The last 8 miles felt 3 times as long as the first 18. At about mile 20 I threw all pace goals out the window and just tried to keep running/jogging/moving forward at whatever pace possible. Around mile 21 I almost broke into tears my legs were so tired and achy. I started telling myself to just work on one mile at a time and I started walking through the water stops. Mile 26 I broke down into 800's in my head. I just kept telling myself 3 800's to go, just like a track workout. I came through the finish line in 4:32:54, much slower than either of my pace goals, but I was so happy to have finished that it didn't even matter.

(coming towards the finish line, looking very tired)

(Finished. I couldn't figure out if I should eat something or drink something. So I grabbed everything. Haha.)

I didn't really even want to post this.... but maybe it can serve as a warning to other first time marathoners about what happens if you go out too fast. If the goal was to run progressively slower each mile I definitely accomplished that.... unfortunately that wasn't the goal.

Here it is, the garmin splits.

Mile 1 - 8:55 (umm too fast!)

Mile 2 - 9:05 (okay... I ran a little bit slower)

Mile 3 - 9:06

Mile 4 - 9:07

Mile 5 - 9:09

Mile 6 - 9:04

Mile 7 - 9:15

Mile 8 - 9:13

Mile 9 - 9:17 (at this point i'm thinking okay this pace feels pretty good)

Mile 10 - 9:22

Mile 11 - 9:28

Mile 12 - 9:38

Mile 13 - 9:46

Mile 14 - 9:59

Mile 15 - 10:05 (my muscles start to hurt and I think okay, i'll just hold 10min/mile for the rest of the race no prob.)

Mile 16 - 10:03

Mile 17 - 10:02

Mile 18 - 10:50

Mile 19 - 11:07 (I want to cry and be done with the race, my legs hurt and are all crampy..oh and I also realized the consequences of going out too fast)

Mile 20 - 11:22 (I throw out all pace goals and just try to propel myself forwards)

Mile 21 - 12:16

Mile 22 - 12:36

Mile 23 - 11:44

Mile 24 - 12:08

Mile 25 - 11:57

Mile 26 - 11: 36

The last bit: 3:49 (11 min mile pace)

overall average: 10:15 min/mile - not great, but i'm still happy to have finished a marathon!

And the weekly milage recap:

Sunday - 26.2 miles! Yea!

Saturday - 1.05 miles (really? I put running clothes on to do this?)

Friday - rest

Thursday - 3.01 miles

Wednesday - Ab workout

Tuesday - 4.12 miles

Monday - off

Weekly total: 34.38 miles

Revisiting my Goals

Well, the day has come (almost!). The marathon is about 1 day away. Tasks for tomorrow include picking up my race packet, getting some power bars (my pre-run breakfast), finishing my ipod playlist, and trying to stay off my feet as much as possible. According to my marathon training plan i'm also supposed to do a 10 minute run. It almost doesn't even seem worth it to change into running clothes for something that short, but I do always like to get a short jog in the day before a race to loosen my muscles up and stretch afterwards.

When I began training for this marathon I had some training goals:

- Complete as many runs as possible. Check.

- Not get injured. Check

I also had some marathon goals:

- Finish alive and uninjured

- Run 10 minute miles or under

- Try to run a 4 hr 10 min marathon.

Now, at the end of training, my goals really haven't changed. My 20 milers were at about 10:50 min/mile pace.... so i'm definitely going to kick it up, but my experience has been that my race pace is much faster than my training pace, so I think 10 min miles are definitely possible. As for a 4hr 10 min marathon... we will see. My plan is to try to keep my pace at about 9:30/mile for as long as possible. I always go out to fast, so i'm really going to try not to do that.

I'm definitely feeling nervous!

I'll try to do a short blog tomorrow before the race. If not, i'll do a race recap after the race!

Last weeks recap

The race is less than a week away, I'll blog more about that as it gets closer... for now:

Weekly milage recap:

Sunday : 6.41 miles

Saturday: 4.04 miles

Friday: Pilates

Thursday: 5.33 miles

Wednesday: Core

Tuesday: Speedwork. 400/800/400/1200/400/1600/400 (200 rest interval after 400s, 400 rest interval all others) for 5.25 miles total

Monday: off

Weekly milage total: 21.03 miles