Recovery

So here we are five days after the Marathon and I haven't run a step, or done any other form of exercise other than walk the dog for that matter. The rest of the weekend was pretty much spent just shuffling about. My quads and calves in particular were so sore that shuffle pace hurt! It wasn't until Tuesday that I woke up and the soreness had noticeably started to ease.

Pretty much a reflection that I had taken my body past what it had been trained to do on Saturday- understandable when you look at the fact that I had only done about 8weeks proper training leading up to the race. As coach put it, we flirted with fire with the agressiveness of the program. I just about escaped unburned!

Now on Thursday my legs almost feel 'normal' again. I was going to leave it until Saturday to test the waters but Tim is in town tonight so we are going to hit up Mcalpine for an easy run tomorrow morning so we can do a post Marathon debrief and start planning the next cycle.

Speaking of which I've been thinking about next steps for the past few days and have come up with a plan that's got the appetite going again. Goal races will be a fast Half at the new Columbia Half Marathon at the end of February and then a dart at my 5k PR at the end of April at the CPCC Skyline race. Looking back the past few years it seems I keep reasonably fit over the winter, but then try and get fitter and fitter as the year goes on- which takes its toll when you are running in 90 degree heat and humidity every day! This time around I want to hit the start of the GP series as hard as possible and then maintain rather than build on fitness over the Summer.

I will definitely be looking to compete well in the Grand Prix series next year having had to sit out nearly every race this year. As far as marathons go I think I'm done for a while! Certainly nothing planned for 2010. Lisa wants me to do Disney in Jan 2011 so we can go on vacation straight after, but that's a long way off yet...