I had no idea how I'd feel coming off of the 21-mile run on Saturday. I did absolutely everything wrong in preparing for the run and figured that I would pay dearly come Sunday and today. Well... I was wrong.
I feel freakin' great!
Yesterday I felt no pain anywhere. The getaway sticks were a little sore, but that was to be expected. The throbbing in my feet was gone, no lower back issues and my calves felt stronger than ever. As a reward, I treated myself to a massage and followed that up by inhaling the largest ice cream sundae I've ever seen.
Not actual Sundae, but pretty close to what it looked like
Coming out of the 21 miles pain free is a landmark in this marathon quest. The single biggest concern I had about over confidently registering for two marathons, and announcing a possible run in a third in November, was my recovery. I've read and been told that one should recover a day per mile run. That would mean that I would need to expect to take it easy for 26 days following the Montreal. That would take me to a couple days before Hartford. This logic never made sense to me. If the training called on you to do a 20-mile run a month before the race and to continue the training with several double digit runs after that than why would I need to take close to a month to recover from 26 miles?
What I did wrong heading into it? Well, for starters all I had to eat was a couple eggs and some bacon in the morning. Hardly the carb load needed to give my body the nutrients needed for such a run. I didn't properly stretch. I started my run around 1 pm on a 95+ degree day. I only had water, a few energy gel packets and a couple electrolyte pills. Even my I-pod wasn't fully juiced (it died around mile 14). I hadn't run more than 13 miles since the Fairfield Half at the end of June. I basically broke every training rule out there. However, I finished and as I sit here today I'm more confident, better prepared and more excited to do this than ever before.
Bring it on heat, humidity, hills and hydration wall! Not even my own bonehead moves can stop me from here on out. Bring...It...On... Snap!
Amazing! You seem to do everything wrong, but run 21 miles?! Did you run it non-stop, or with walking breaks?? What was your time? Congrats!
ReplyDeleteGood job in making the program work for you. I agree with your training runs at the Marathons, just make sure you take it very easy at those races and keep your focus on Hartford. Something I have told you all along is not to focus on race time, just focus on heartrate and time you are running. As long as you are able to talk to a lot during the race to others, you should be fine.
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