Recovering

It's been 2 weeks since I ran the 24 hour race in Asheville NC, and I haven't blogged about that race yet... Currently, I'm waiting for the information to be written down and sent to me from one of my friends that was at the race timing every little thing that went on.  Once I figure that out, I figure I'll be able to write a little blog about the amazing experience I've had.

The short version of the race is this.  I ran long and hard, ran 102.3 miles and finished 1st overall.  I started doing the 5 min run 1 min walk for the first... 16 hours and then after that, I got too exhausted so I ran more and rested more when I finished a loop.  Funny thing is that after the race, I slept, and within 2 days, I was back on my feet playing tag at a summer day camp that I work at.  In 5 days, I did my first run which was 5.38 miles, the next day running 5.32, took a break the next day, then ran 5.79 miles, 6.29 miles, break, and the day before yesterday, ran 6.04 miles.  Yesterday, I was a little tired from spending the week doing housing projects and watching Man of Steel (which was pretty nice, I thought... especially because I didn't expect anything from it, haha) but today... after blogging, I plan on going out for a run.

The first two days of running, the top of my right foot hurt.  I'm not sure exactly what the cause of it was, but it was because of that pain that I decided that I would turn around and make my way back home.  The pace I was going on the first two days of running was 9:19 and 9:15 min/mile so I wasn't going too fast... but I felt like running on the road was still a little too much after the 102.3 miles endeavor.  After the break, my right foot hasn't hurt me and so I was able to run a little faster, at a little over 8 min/mile, but I still don't want to hurt myself and made it my goal to only work on building myself up in distance, so that when I go to Leadville to run that 100 miler, I would be more prepared.

Recovery can be a pain, but at the same time, it's something that your body needs and so we have to go through with it and let the body take it's course.  Recovery slows down if you don't rest, and so rest IS important.  However, resting too much can be detrimental.  In doing that, your body might get acclimated to the resting state and in turn, you won't just fully recover, but also build a bad habit.  Since running has begun to be a lifestyle for me, it hasn't been too much of a problem when I occasionally take two days off in a row, but 5 days in a row... my mind was affected by that and I enjoyed taking that break from running.  Let's hope that the next couple of weeks I continue my training plan and get to where I need to be for the race in August.