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Recovery

Recovery

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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.

Mother Nature versus Your Run (or, When Lightning Strikes…)

Mother Nature versus Your Run (or, When Lightning Strikes…)

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Last Wednesday (6/23), my training buddies and I were gearing up for what would have been (for many of us) our first post-Boston Marathon speedwork session, in preparation for the Chicago Marathon on 10.10.10.  Since there were five of us involved, and one gal had to trek in from the suburbs to do it, you can only imagine all the back-and-forth emails, detailing our logistics, that passed among us in the impending hours.

And then Mother Nature gave us a big F-U and decided that speed just wasn’t going to happen that night.

If you’re not from the Chicago area, it’s likely that you didn’t hear about the tornado that swept through parts of the greater Chicagoland area or the absolutely wicked, somewhat infernal thunderstorm we had that night.  Though no tornado touched down in Chicago, proper, we had what amounted to a laser light show of lightning and just buckets’ worth of rain pelted down on us from roughly 5:30 until well after 9 that night.  The picture, below, taken by a Tribune photographer, gives you a glimpse into the amazing weather conditions we had last week.

Images of lightning hitting both the Sears and Trump Towers simultaneously

…which leads me to the real purpose of this post.  I’m the type of runner who doesn’t mind running in the element—thunder, rain, snow, ice, heat, frigidity, whatever—but as soon as lightning enters into the fray, I’m high-tailing it out to seek cover.

A quick scouring online just now brings up all sorts of formulas about how fast you’d have to run to “outrun” an eminent thunder and lightning storm, but I’ll take this quick little adage from the National Lightning Safety Institute: “if you can see it, flee it (take shelter immediately); if you can hear it, clear it (stop what you’re doing and find a safe place to wait).” The National Weather Service also has a good resource on lightning safety for outdoor activities.

Though irked I was to not be able to do my speedwork that night, at the end of the day, I run to maintain and increase my health.  And I can’t do either if I’ve been struck dead by lightning.

Can’t get a much more self-evident formula than that.