Running "comeback" after 50K

The big challenge after finishing MRTR was how and when to resume running and prep for the Twin Cities Marathon (coming up quickly on October 7!). I definitely wanted to give my body a rest, but I also wanted to parlay my endurance training into a strong marathon, and try to build back a little speed (just a little, I'm not asking for the moon!).

Sunday was a complete rest day, obviously. It was also the day we drove back to Washington, which made for a lot of hours of sitting. Luckily my Subaru is pretty comfortable and we did make a few stops where I could shake out my legs.

Saturday night, and into Sunday, and maybe Monday, I was pretty sore. Saturday night it was "achy body interferes with sleep" but after that it was less. More like my body froze up every time I sat down and I had to warm-up before moving again. As the overall achiness faded, DOMS hit my quads in a pretty big way. It took until at least Thursday for that to mostly dissipate. On the first couple days I wanted to shriek every time my cat jumped into my lap! Lucky thing my massage wasn't scheduled until Thursday.

On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I just cross-trained with an hour on the elliptical. I was pretty weak at first, but got a little stronger (and faster) every day. On Friday I even did about 10 minutes of intervals at the end.

On Thursday I decided to try my first run. I am not sure whether a little more recovery might have been good, but frankly I wanted a change from the elliptical. I had gotten up very early to take my parents to the airport. When I got home a little before 6 I was so tired, so I napped on the couch for 30-40 minutes before going out (best.nap.ever). Then I had some gear failure issues, so I didn't have a whole lot of time when I finally got outside.

That was probably for the best, though. I did manage to get my average pace to 10 minutes in the first three miles (by running an 8:30 in mile 3) and then did another 2.5 at 9:30-9:45 pace. But frankly, I was tired after three miles!

After ellipticalling on Friday (I made that word up), I was out again on Saturday. Once again I pushed myself into a sub-10 average pace, with some extra effort in mile 3. This time I didn't feel too tired until after about five miles (progress). I finished with 7.5 miles, all I had time to do as we were going to a brunch at Rod's folks' house later that morning.

Finally, today I dabbled in double digits, just over ten miles while Rod did some painting at his friends' house. Today I felt tired at mile...2? No, not really, but I was super sluggish and my overall average pace was 10:50.

I have also been hampered by a big Garmin fail issue. My one-year-old new Garmin, after running valiantly for eight hours on Saturday, gave me the blank screen of death on Thursday morning. This was after the screen froze up and I tried a hard reset. It won't charge when I plug it in either. I am trying to decide whether to buy a new one or what. I have read about people with the same problem where it miraculously started taking a charge a few days later. I am hoping that will happen to me....

Meanwhile I have used my old one with the unfixable broken band. On Thursday it was taped together with duct tape (that eventually falls off). On Saturday I carried it in my hand (irritating). Today I pinned it to my fuel belt. The only problem with that is I can't read it when I'm running...I think that is part of why I couldn't regulate my pace today. I know, I have Garmin co-dependency issues. Send me to therapy.

My other leftover irritation from MRTR is a persistent blister on my left big toe. I have drained it several times but it keeps popping back up! It doesn't prevent me from running but it does get uncomfortable after a while. This needs to go away soon. I'm not running 26.2 miles in (less than) three weeks with a blister before I start!

So that's it for the first week post 50K. I'm thinking 18 miles next weekend...then taper (again).


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