Ibuprofen Is My Drug of Choice At The Moment

…but only because I can’t afford anything stronger 😉

Whew.  Busy weekend much? I didn’t do anything terribly exciting.  After a whirlwind weekend last weekend (which I can’t believe that it’s been a week plus since I ran my race! and wrote two recaps for — the first link is the original and the second is the splits (which I’m glad you like!) with a few pics that I put up yesterday– and I even eluded to a 3rd if I can figure out how to steal the race photos hahah) a chill weekend was just what I needed.

I could go into all the details of what I did but the non-running highlights were:

• Going to the theater (fo’ free again) to see Vieux Carre, in 15* weather and then walking home is a very light flurry.  It was pretty and it was also fun to see the snowflakes smash themselves into the ground.  This snow was okay because it was only a dusting and definitely did not stick or accumulate.
• Walked to downtown and around downtown for 5 hours searching for Christmas stuff in amazing 45* weather!

• Got annoyed because I came away from that trip feeling empty handed (even though I didn’t actually)
• Made Christmas cards while watching Sweeney Todd

I should clarify that my making Christmas cards is to buy already made ones and then draw simple pictures and write really long personal notes inside of them ( I tend to send cards to people I don’t physically see that often or on a regular basis so the notes can get long if I’m not careful).  I am no Martha Stewart, as much as I want to be.

And there was actual running.  Because, a week out of marathon racing is the time that recovery ends. Or so I used to think. I’ve found that the above statement is likely wrong in my case with this particular marathon as, I’ve said it before, this is the first marathon that I’ve really RACED HARD.  As Jess told me in one of her comments: “Unfortunately, recovery is more than just muscle soreness going away. Annoying, I know.”

thanks google images

So I’m actually happy that I’ve run less than I did the past week (and even the least amount since back in August!).  I mean, duh, I don’t really like it (not do I like the fact that my pace has taken a hit post-WR) but it’s kind of what I need to do. While the soreness of my muscles is long gone, the really intense race obviously did more physical damage than just soreness: all my tendons and ligaments and CELLS were pushed to the limit. Even if I can’t feel or see it, I need to respect it.

I still have a bit of a twinge in my pirformis/IT band/knee/ whatever the heck it is.  I probably tried to jump into running too soon in terms of days post-race.  But keeping the mileage down has been great overall. Especially mentally. Post-WR I can’t imagine how I was able to run speed work or LR or run more than 6-7 miles at a time really! Guess the effort took a lot out of me (and you can click one of those recap links to see just how hard I was running!).  But I’m slowly getting back to feeling good and taking care of myself (if I can nip this leg issue in the bud).  And at the moment that means *NOT* logging the mega miles that everyone knows me for 😉

Feeling good was the case on Saturday when I ran 9.3 in STUNNING WEATHER.  In contrast to the 10* of Friday morning it was nearly 45* when I hit the streets. I was only planning on 8 but literally ran into my running buddy on my good old pathway.  His words when he caught up to me: “I thought it was you but then I thought ‘Nah she’s running so much slower than the last time I saw her’” HAH! It was fun to tell him about WR and the more I talk about it, especially with runners who “get it” the more I feel like I own it. My pace definitely picked up a bit over the miles I ran with him but when we parted and I had to stop at a set of lights my leg tightened up a bit a I cursed my hubris for tacking on that extra mile.

Sunday and Monday brought runs that were similar in nature: waking up with no leg issue and good for the first 5-6 miles before the pirformis/IT/knee/whatever the heck it is started telling me to stop.  On Sunday it acted up at a stoplight again while trying to start back up. The only really annoying part was that it was raining by the time this happened so I really didn’t want to stop and walk.  I was a bit smarter on Monday (today) as I planned my route to end when the leg irritation starts with the option of shorter loops close to my apartment if I was feeling good.  In the end I didn’t use the extra loops.  Not because of my leg but because I told myself that to tempt fate was silly.

And ending a run without pain was more important than mileage, well minimal pain because I could feel that if I ran any further then it would be real pain. Annoying because the weather was WARM (49*) but learning curve? Yes please

 

I definitely bump around a lot on my running career path. Hopefully my trend is up too 🙂 Thanks google images

Plus I’ve been talking to (and trying to listen I swear!) lots of runners, smarter and more experienced than I, and the gist is to baby is:aka ice, less miles and more XT (I’m trying to “borrow” my roomie’s ID so I can get into the university gym as she’s a student), ibuprofen, rolling, stretching and a new thing: sitting on a tennis ball while at work! And I’ll trust them 🙂

Sorry to be so boring.  Major changes at work + marathon recovery = nothing exciting to write about. And running-wise it likely won’t get much more exciting as I’m facing the idea of going extra EXTRA easy with this twinge, although I’ve been talking with friends (who are runners) and I’ve been hearing some encouraging things about the future.  But, like I mentioned last week, I’m still trying to enjoy the moment right now post WR.  So I’ll let these thoughts sit on the back burner for a bit.

That said, I’m hoping to put together some funner posts for later this week (which include my “truths” that Lacey might have told you to heckle me about and maybe a recipe if I can get my act together 😉 ) as I know that on the running front what I’m going to be: short slow recovery run.  Because, well maybe I could push a little harder to make a post exciting, I don’t really want to. In all likelihood that excitement would be a trip to the ER or something!

But to give you something to listen too and bop around: this song is in my head RIGHT NOW and totally has been all weekend.  It’s one of those songs that the radio station plays non-stop (I’ll end up posting the others later this week because I’m sure they’ll be in my head!).

Check out the giveaway from 26.2 is my cooldown