Marathon Recovery... Dislike!

You know how sometimes when people post updates on facebook and instead of wanting to "like" it, you want to "dislike" it? Don't you wish there was a "thumbs down" button? Anyways, I'm currently in the "dislike" mode for marathon recovery.

Being that this was my first marathon, I really had no concept of what the recovery would be like or how long it would take. After all my half marathons my max recovery was 2 days, other race lengths would be 1 day or less. Just based on the time I needed to recover from a half, I figured I'd be set for the full after a week. I was already planning an aggressive 5k plan for a new PR and wanted to get started right away. Well... I was wrong, really wrong. It's been almost 4 weeks now and I'm still waiting for the run where my legs feel fresh. I took a full week off from running and since then have only averaged 2 runs a week. I've picked up extra spin classes to try and stay active and increase recovery time, but it's just not going how I thought it would.

I've been in training mode for the last year and a half straight, always training for something. Always planning hard workouts for speed and distance work and never taking more than a week off from running. It's quite the shock to all of a sudden not be able to train for anything, not even a measly 5k, because my legs can't handle a run at even marathon pace, let alone 5k pace. I'm pretty miserable and am worried that I'm losing all of my speed and endurance that I have built up over the last year.

I have noticed some small improvements on my runs, but it's not enough for me to be excited about it. I'm trying to accept that recovery is a necessary evil and that eventually I will be back to normal and ready to train again... it's just really hard to believe it at this point. I've already signed up for my next marathon and my training will start Aug 1st... I sure hope I've recovered by then, otherwise I'm screwed.

On a side note, my foot appears to be completely healed, hooray!

No longer injury free...

When I finished my marathon a couple weeks ago, the worst injury I anticipated was sore muscles. The day following the marathon I ended up having a pain in my foot, mostly when I put weight on it. It was a pain I've never experienced before and assume was a result of the marathon. I immediately emailed my coach fearing the worst and started the online research for self diagnosis! After all the back and forth emails and my online searching it seemed maybe it was just a bruise. I stayed off of it as much as possible for the next 6 days... On the 7th day there was no pain, hooray!

So, since I was pain free and past my 7 day "no running" requirement from the marathon, I was itching to get out there for a run. This past Monday I did just that, after work I laced up and headed out in the neighborhood for an easy run, close to 6 miles. After I was done I felt GREAT! I was SO excited to be back running again, and NO pain in the foot. Yay!

Then Tuesday came... I'm out at the grocery store to pick up a couple things and after about 10 minutes of walking around in the store, it happens... the pain is BACK. Damn. I limp my way through check-out and back to the office... I skip my workout for the evening to go home and rest it.

Wednesday... wake up and walk around for 5 minutes, pain is there still. Suck. Get through work and head to a spin class, no pain during spinning, yay! Got a great workout in, feeling good. Take a quick shower and leave the gym, no pain still. I get home walking around doing chores, it's back.

Today... wake up and immediately I can tell it is still hurting. This. Really. Sucks.

I've got an appointment with an orthopedic guy next Tuesday, but I'm sad to say that I won't be running until this is resolved. I'm also starting to think it's not a bruise but something worse. Hopefully I'm wrong. My next marathon training won't start until Aug 1st, so at the very least I have about 7 more weeks to get this foot problem fixed before I will be seriously bumming.

Wish me luck, I need it. :(