Recovery
It's been almost two months since the marathon and I can say that I've fully recovered. In fact, it didn't take nearly as long as I thought. After a week of not running, I eased in and found that my aching plantar fasci held up well. I eased back into a loose schedule of running: a few times a week, my weekly mileage never totaled more than 20 miles. For the most part this is exactly what my body needed, especially after such an intense racing season. But last week I started to feel restless and purposeless; the kind of feelings that drives me to sign up for a race:)
But instead of looking for a race (at least there is part of me that is smart enough to know I need a break from racing), I read an article, one written by my sister in law, on her blog:
. And I realized that instead of haphazardly logging miles through the week, that the off season is the perfect time to be working on my overall, strength, fitnes and diet. Click
to read her article. As a result I set up a two-week rotation of running and cross training ( see chart below) based on her suggestions. I'm one week in to it and feel like my training has more purpose. Treating my off season training as prep for next year is both a physical and mental relief. So no more races for now, just building strength so I can run injury free when I start ramping up to higher mileage for the spring.
--Sarah