This week was 6 miles of running, 30 "miles" of pool-running, and 4000 yards of swimming -- training log is here.
First recovery week post-marathon.
The rule was to do nothing intense for the first week post- marathon, and to only do what I wanted to do each morning. For the first days, that was social pool-running. Then, on Wednesday, I decided I felt like going to yoga, so I did that for a few days, before adding in some swimming.
I didn't put any clock on when I would start running again - basically I'd wait until I wanted to run again, then wait a few more days, and then run. As it turned out, I started missing running on Thursday afternoon, so I went for a run on Sunday.
As for how I felt? I was pretty tired for the first part of the week, and needed tons of sleep. On Wednesday, I "only" got slightly less than 8 hours, and felt like I had gotten 4. By the weekend, I was feeling more normal, though I know I'm not even close to recovered.
The nausea that I experienced pre-race reoccurred this week, which was concerning both because nausea is never a good thing and because it interfered with my consumption of junk food. Fortunately I already have a doctors appointment this week (I check in with my rheumatologist every 6 months to make sure we're staying on top of my auto-immune stuff) so I can just raise this there.
[but I am annoyed that I didn't get to eat all my junk food this week. At least there's always next week.]
Sunday's run felt better than expected, but then again, I had very low expectations. I was a bit sluggish, but not too bad, and nothing hurts.
I'm still going to keep stuff low key for the next two weeks as part of my work towards "shedding excess fitness." I really do want to run a fast marathon at the end of this year, and the best way to accomplish that is to make sure I'm fully recharged now, both mentally and physically. Take the one step back now to set up for two or more steps forward in the fall.
As for the obvious question of "why don't you just take a total break from all working out for a few weeks?" Well - there's two reasons why not.
The first is that the older you get, the harder it is to return from a complete break. You don't just lose fitness, you lose your ability to handle the work, and become injury prone.
The second reason is that forced complete rest is not restful or regenerative. It's just another type of stress. (especially if you telecommute full time, and going for a run or to yoga or the pool is the only time you leave the house for the day.) Sometimes full rest is necessary to end an injury cycle, but in any other situation, I believe that moderate fun activity is better recovery for body and mind.
For these reasons, it's better to pull back, and spend a few weeks doing only activities that I enjoy when I feel like doing them.
Dailies
Monday: 7.5 "miles" of pool-running in the morning.
Tuesday: 7 "miles" of pool-running mid-day.
Wednesday: Yoga in the morning; sports massage in afternoon.
Thursday: Yoga and 7.5 "miles" of pool-running in the morning; foam rolling at night.
Friday: Foam rolling, yoga, and 2000 yards of swimming.
Saturday: 8 "miles" of pool-running, upper body weights/core, and DIY yoga. Also foam rolling.
Sunday: 6 miles very easy (9:19), lower body injury prevention work, and 2000 yards of swimming. Foam rolling at night.
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