How to Recover From a Marathon

Step 1. Vow never to do one again.

Step 2. Start thinking about next marathon.

Since a marathon is mentally and physically grueling, you need some time to recover. I’ve been reading as much as I can about marathon recovery, and here’s what I’ve come up with for my marathon recovery so far. A lot of this is taken from Hal Higdon’s post-marathon guide. (The guide I followed for marathon training was also based on a Higdon guide.)

I’ve read and heard that for every mile you run in a long race, you’re supposed to give your body a day of rest. That doesn’t mean total rest, though; it means active rest.

Higdon calls this week after the marathon “zero week.” I was supposed to take Monday through today as total rest days. I did a little bit of stretching/yoga poses the past few nights for both my sanity and my muscles.

Last night, I got a painful massage and pedicure as part of the recovery process. My muscles feel looser and my toes no longer look as bad as they feel, and I once again have soft lady feet. 

Tomorrow, I’ll go for a nice, easy two-miler in the morning to loosen up these legs. I’ll stretch the hell out of my legs when I get back and foam roll. Friday, I’ll do some kind of cross-training, like a bike ride or a little while on the elliptical. Friday night’s plan involves quite a few cocktails.

Saturday and Sunday, I’ll run a bit more. Going forward, I’ll follow weeks 1-4 of Hal’s plan as best I can. Some of what I’ve read talks about running goals going forward. I’m not going to run any races (unless there’s a totally fun one I didn’t know about!) until two NYRR ones in November that I need to finish up my 9+1 so I can run next year’s NYC Marathon.

Between now and the next marathon, I’d like to improve my 5K time, run a sub-2:00 half marathon (I’m hoping to get into the NYC Half lottery) and enjoy some classes at the gym as well as some non-running workouts. I’m definitely hooked hard on the running habit, but I’d like to mix it up, too. 

I’ll obviously listen to my body in recovery, too. If any runs seem too hard or things hurt, I won’t push myself. Since I’m sick right now, too, I’m also aiming for more sleep this next week or so.

I was pleased to read that keeping up carbs for at least this week or so is part of marathon recovery. I’m so good at carbs:

Also, if you read this blog in the Tumblr dashboard or in Google Reader, you might want to click over. I had to change my layout to accommodate another ad, so I changed up some things. Above the logo, it’s much easier now to find important posts and race recaps.

If you’ve run a marathon before, does my recovery plan sound about right?

How NOT To Taper

Remember how yesterday I said that today’s long run would be a dry run of my marathon?

Well, I won’t be going out the night before to watch college football.

I won’t have tacos for dinner.

I won’t be having five beers.

I won’t sing at the top of my lungs and lose my voice.

I won’t go to sleep at close to 4am.

I won’t see blog readers at bars! (Hi Kristi!)

But I did have a lot of fun last night, and with this marathon training, it’s been a while since I’ve gone out on a Saturday night. It’s almost 3, and I still haven’t done my long run (I slept in, had a kickball game, am about to get on a conference call), but I had fun and will run after my call.

Also, I’m not touching alcohol until after the marathon, when I will have the biggest beer I can get my hands on.

And, clearly I had a bagel for breakfast. Because I’m running a marathon next week.

Tales of the Taper

I’m running my first marathon in eight days! I had my last training session before the marathon with Joel this morning, and I’m feeling that much more ready. He told me I was looking really strong and that he thought I’d definitely be able to hit my goal time. We did a lot of Pilates-type strength exercises so that I didn’t fatigue my muscles any further. My run tomorrow, my last long run before the race (!), is supposed to be a dry run for the marathon. I felt good at the half-marathon last weekend, so I’m trying to eat pretty closely today to what I had the day before.

Which just happened to be a bagel for breakfast. Oh damn! :)

After working out with Joel for an hour, I still had to run three miles. After training runs that lasted for hours, I was psyched to hit the trail for a half hour! I went out so happy I was nearly giddy.

My Garmin was being iffy picking up a signal, which actually worked for the better. I wanted to run at an easy pace, so I just looked at the time until it said a half hour. You can tell it’s training time for the NYC Marathon because you couldn’t swing a cat without hitting a training group on the West Side Highway path this morning.

I smiled at my fellow runners crazy people as I plodded past them, only slightly wistful for my own long runs. After weeks of trying to run faster than I’d ever run or longer than I’d ever run, it did feel sort of weird to only run a slow three miles. (Good weird.)

I’ve been reading as many marathon recaps as I can get my hands on, and next week, I’m going to put together a huge post with people’s marathon recaps (both for myself and for you!), so if you’ve run a marathon and wrote a recap or read an awesome marathon recap, can you comment/reply with a link?

Why Training for a Marathon Sucks

Yesterday I wrote about what was awesome about training for a marathon. There’s also quite a few things that suck, just in case I happened to scare you into wanting to run one.

Time. This is, hands-down, what sucks the most. If you think just working out is a big time commitment (and it is), think about training for a marathon. As it is, a long run can take you up to four hours or more. That’s bad enough!

But if you are traveling to where you’re running (as I’ve done to avoid running alone), then factor in travel time. Then add in stretching and showering time. I think I probably stretch for close to a half-hour after a long run. Mostly because I’m so tired. I’ll stretch a leg and then lay there on the floor for 30 seconds or so before stretching the next leg.

If you’re taking a bath in Epsom salt or an ice bath, factor in that time. When I did my second 20-miler, from the time I left my apartment, traveled, ran, showered and stretched, it took me eight hours. Then I took an hour-and-a-half nap.

You’re lame. The actual time you’re running/stretching/recovering is bad enough, but running hungover just once will show you how badly it sucks. Your stomach hurts, you’re gasping for air and the sweat is pouring out of you like a geyser. It’s not worth it, so you don’t go out with friends the night before. Because, let’s be honest, while maybe we don’t need alcohol to have fun, if everyone else is drinking, it’s not as fun to be the one with the water or nursing one beer.

Ugly feet. I’m the kinda girl who insists on having perfectly pedicured toes about 90 percent of the year, so this one is hard! I have blisters both on the tops and bottoms of my feet and in between my toes. A few toenails are hanging on for dear life. Meghann told me not to get a pedicure until after the marathon, so my calluses are equally super-sexy.

Heels. The corollary to ugly feet is no heels. You know how sometimes your knees or ankles hurt after a long day in heels? Try running a kajillion miles and then putting on a pair of heels. No thanks. (Truth be told, I don’t wear heels super-often anyway, but still…)

Money. While no doubt I’m saving some money by drinking less, it’s not like I get to sock it away. Whoever said running was a cheap sport never trained for a marathon. At a minimum, you’ll need new shoes and some Gus to get you through your long runs.

Along the way, I’ve also picked up some new running clothes, The Stick, insoles to help my knees and god knows what else I can’t remember. This is in addition to the Garmin I got for Christmas last year and the foam roller I bought last year. While I know I don’t need all of this, it’s hard not to fall prey sometimes to something that seems like it will make running easier in some way.

Chafing. When I was heavier, I was victim to chub rub all summer. I’d get nasty chafing on my inner thighs because they were rubbing up against each other. Even though my legs are in awesome shape, when you’re running and sweating for hours, it’s hard to avoid chafing where skin is coming into contact with more skin. (See also: underarm chafing. Ow.)

Diet. It may be no coincidence that I started having stomach issues again after I started running really long distances. I’ve totally simplified my diet so that my stomach feels settled when I run, and so that I have the right fuel to run.

With all of that said, is it still worth it? Oh. Hell. Yeah.

Things That Are Awesome About Training for a Marathon

Yup, it’s going to be all marathon all the time over here until at least 10/11/10. (Also, if you’re new here, you might want to check out my top posts page.)

I’ve been complaining a lot lately about marathon training, so I thought I’d tell you why it’s awesome. Tomorrow, I’ll tell you, in handy list form!, why it sucks.

Massage. You pretty much have to get a massage at least once during training. Sure, it’s because your muscles have basically been through a ringer, but a massage is massage.

Camraderie. There’s no faster way to get to know someone than to run with them. After a few long runs with Ashley, I’m sure we know more about each other than we do about most of our other friends. I’ve made friends through Tumblr, other blogs, DailyMile, Twitter and at the Healthy Living Summit, because of a shared love craziness for running. I’ve also become closer with friends that have been running forever.

Sightseeing. In training for this marathon, I ran in Hawaii, Chicago and D.C. In Hawaii and Chicago, I saw things I might not otherwise see; in D.C., I saw a side of my former city that I only caught glimpses of when I lived there. I also saw parts of NYC I’d never seen before.

Talking about taboos. Within minutes of meeting each other, Emily and I talked about poop. Within minutes of finding out my mom’s cousin ran marathons, we were talking about bloody nipples (much to my mom’s chagrin.)

Looking badass. I can’t count the number of people who’ve said something along the lines of “I can’t believe you can do that!” after I ran some double-digit run. While sometimes I still can’t believe I can do it, it’s always fun to play off like it’s no big deal.

Food. Once you’ve run 20 miles, you can basically eat whatever you want. In fact, you sort of have to, and you get to call it refueling and feel even more badass. Bagels become your new best friends, even if you’d previously sworn them off.

Muscles. It takes strength to run long distances, so you get a little more toned all over, and your legs get totally jacked.

Accomplishment. After I’ve finished a long run, I feel like I can do anything!

The Spirit of the Marathon

Tonight, Laurel came over for some leftovers:

and some Spirit of the Marathon watching. Laurel and I have been talking for months about watching this movie, and we finally did.

If you’re not familiar with the movie, it follows six runners (Deena Kastor, Daniel Njenga, a Kenyan marathoner and four “regular people”) as they prepare for the Chicago Marathon. It was great to see the training and race from the perspective of elite athletes, crazy-fast-Boston-qualifying-like Laurel fast runners, a runner that looked about my speed and runners who were finishing in 6+ hours and just happy to finish.

Every scene that panned over the course freaked me out a bit, but I’m so excited to run this damn race!

I Eat Runs For Breakfast!

Wait…that’s kinda weird.

A few days ago, I was sick and freaking out about my marathon. I already thought I’d been undertrained, but I vowed to myself that I’d 100% stick to my training schedule for the next three weeks. How hard could that be, right? Then I got sick. Not so sick I couldn’t walk, but just sick enough that I was worried that I’d wear myself out more if I ran, so I decided to take a few more days off.

After lounging around for a bit this morning and taking Bailey to the dog park, I set out around noon for a run. It was pretty hot, but I haven’t been able to do this without DYING since at least July. On my plan, Joel had written “RUN FAST.”

So, run fast, I did.

My Garmin died about 30 seconds after I got outside, so I used the RunKeeper app on my phone. In total social media dorkiness, I plan on using this app during my marathon. Why? So I can unlock the Foursquare Marathon badge when I’m done.

I was hot, I felt all kinds of phantom twinges (apparently this is totally normal during the tapering phase of marathon training), my nose was running all over the place, but I ran my little heart out, and I finished in 34:55—an 8:43 pace! Laurel and I were talking about running last week (shocker!), and I told her how I’d had an awesome run last weekend, and she said there’s a point in marathon training where it seems like it’s finally all coming together. I’m glad I finally hit that point. 

I know I won’t be doing 8:45 miles for a marathon distance, but it gives me faith that I can run a strong marathon at a decent pace. Or, a 4:16 marathon according to Runner’s World. We’ll see about that…

Since I sweat and sneezed out every last drop of water left in my body and got an iced coffee after my run, I rehydrated with a Gatorade. And I ate a bagel because I love them on the weekends.

Oh, and my new obsession is DailyMile. So if you’re on there, be my friend?

Can I have some cheese with this whine?

The past six weeks or so, my social life on the weekends has been pretty lame. For much of August and the beginning of September, I was plagued with stomach issues and in hardcore marathon training. I either didn’t want to go out because I didn’t feel well, or I didn’t want to go out because I had to run a shitload of miles the next day. 

Of course, my stomach finally feels better, and I only have four miles to run tomorrow, and I have a cold. So maybe just one more lame night pre-marathon. (You best believe I’m going OUT after the marathon.) 

The irony of this whiny post is I told Liz tonight at happy hour (yes! we finally met! and Kristin! And I had two glasses of wine for $6!) how I try to stay as positive as I can on this blog. I realized I’ve actually been pretty whiny lately with how I am SO READY to be done with this marathon training.

I need to remind myself that these sacrifices will be worth it on 10.10.10.

Lunch: 

B-bap! I went for the spicy chicken so that I could clear out my sinuses.

Dinner:

Pump.