Tapered, and then ran Grandma's marathon on Saturday. My immediate plans for recovery include 3 days junk food (now sadly near expiration), and half-assed yoga and pool-running. Plus a massage on Monday afternoon.
I find that the yoga/pool-running combination works really well for recovery. I show up at yoga, explain that I've just run a marathon and am just going to "listen to my body." Then I sit or lie down on my mat for most of the class, drinking from my water bottle and occasionally rising to do the poses that I can do easily and without discomfort. Once I'm up to getting through a whole routine comfortably, and can balance on one foot, I know I'm ready for some gentle jogging. I start with 1-2 miles very slow and build from there as if I was coming back from injury.
The pool-running isn't so much active work as it is wearing a pool-running belt and gently waving my legs in the water.
Surprisingly, my legs aren't horribly sore. They're stiff and tight and the quads hurt when I go down stairs, but they hurt a lot less than they did after either Shamrock or Philly. And I was able to walk around semi-normally on Saturday afternoon, just a few hours post race. Perhaps marathon recovery gets easier with more marathons. I also ate an egg right after the race, perhaps that was the difference.
(I also had to walk for about an hour post race trying to find the shuttle back to my dorm - I'm guessing that gets the credit too).
The next few weeks are going to be about recovery and building back with easy jogging. I miss running and training, but if I'm not careful and restrained for the next few weeks, I won't be any good in the fall.
Dailies
Monday: 6 miles very easy (10:15 pace) followed by drills; foam rolling at night.
Tuesday: 6.5 miles, including a very restrained interval workout of 4x800, split as 3:15, 3:07, 3:11, 3:05. Followed with 2 "miles" easy pool-running. Foam rolling at night.
Wednesday: 4.5 miles very easy (9:04 pace), followed by drills. Foam rolling at night.
Thursday: Off. Just travel, plus foam rolling at night.
Friday: 2.5 miles (9:11 pace) plus drills. Foam rolling at night.
Saturday: Marathon in 3:13:36, plus a bit of gentle rolling with the stick.
Sunday: Travel in the morning. Very gentle yoga, 2 "miles" easy pool-running, and some gentle foam rolling in the afternoon.
I think you are right about the more you do. Of course surface makes a difference, but I find PR and near PR marathons don't take near as much out of me now than they did the first 5-10. The one last week was my 25th.
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