Browsed by
Tag: recovery

Recovery

Recovery

Comments 0 Comment

Baby, it’s hot outside.

This may be one of the few times that the atrociously hot weather has actually helped my running… in terms of speed, or sometimes, lack thereof.

Scour the internet for the query “how long do I need to rest after a marathon?” and you’ll get all sorts of answers.  Some claim that you should rest 1 day for every mile you ran—like 26 days for a marathon, 13 for a half, that sort of thing.  Others will say a full month of no running whatsoever, just cross-training (and nothing too extreme).  And some, still, will say just to listen to your body, for it will let you know when it’s up to running again.

I’ve usually gone the route of option 3.  In looking over my other two marathons this year (Boston and Sunburst), I rested for about 5 days post-race before I began running again.  As much as I can recollect from my other previous marathons, that has seemed to be the norm for me.  This time around, following San Fran, I took a full 9 days off—though I (surprisingly) felt great by about 4 days afterward.  (As I mentioned in an earlier post, though, I think that’s more related to the time I spent on my feet on vacation than an inadequate marathon race effort).

What’s more, when I say that these sauna-like temps seem to have helped me recover, I mean it in the sense that it’s seemingly impossible to run as well (read: fast) as I want to when it’s 100+ outside (really or just perceived).  Combine that “forced slower pace” the digits on the thermostat bring, with the fact that my body didn’t feel the effects from marathoning for a full 9 days, and it’s pretty incredible that I don’t, at all, feel like I ran a hilly foot race just a couple weeks ago.  That’s pretty sweet… and was totally unintentional on my part!

It’s pretty tough to run when you feel like you’re suffocating in precipitation.  Also, it’s pretty stupid to really exert yourself when it’s dangerously hot outside.  I run in the p.m. for about half my runs each week, so if you find yourself in my camp, just be careful.  Drink when you need to, wear sunscreen, don the light-colored clothing, and remember, if you want to do this running stuff for the long haul, you have to do things right today.  🙂

My PSA for the week.

Reveling in the cut-back week

Reveling in the cut-back week

Comments 0 Comment

Another week of Boston training under my belt, hooray!  Last week was a cutback in terms of distance and to a lesser extent, volume.  The FF group and I had a good, challenging workout on Wednesday night — repeats of 1 minute on, 1 minute off, x 8, with a 2 minute recovery between sets — totaling just under 7 miles for the night.  Saturday we did a simple 10-miler in the city, and the ladies and I managed to run a negative split, which is always a confidence booster.  And we ran it pretty quickly, to boot.

When I first began marathon training, and running in general, I didn’t understand the importance of tapering or of taking cut-back weeks periodically.  I thought in order to become a better, faster, stronger, leaner runner, I had to go balls-to-the-wall effort 24/7/365.  Not so.  Experience has since taught me that taking appropriate time off, or just even appropriate recovery time, is as essential a part of the training as the actual running.  In fact, some may even argue that recovery and cut-back is even MORE important than the actual running, itself, to allow the body to properly rest and rejuvenate and torn/strained muscles, to repair.

This week, and subsequent weeks, will be substantial build-up weeks.  We’re slated for ~8 miles of speed on Wednesday followed by a good 17 miles of hills in Barrington on Saturday.  It will be great — and especially now that I’ve just submitted a final paper and am beginning to see the light on this thesis project… the timing could not have been better.