Saturday, January 23, 2010

When Recovery May Not Actually Be Recovery

Well, I think I may have done it. What is "it"? "It" refers to short-circuiting my "recovery week". This past week was meant to be an easy recovery week, after racing a half marathon last weekend and stringing together 5 straight weeks of over 40 miles per week. This week I ran 5 times for a total of 30 miles, all at an easy pace. Sounds like I backed off...and I did. But I think I let my ego get the best of me. Thirty miles in a week is indeed less than 40+, and as I mentioned, I ran everything at a slow recovery pace. However, this morning's 5.5 mile run revealed some fatigue and, afterward, a very sore right hip, which has been killing me all day. If I really wanted to "recover" this week, maybe 3 or 4 runs for a total of 15-20 miles would have been more appropriate. After all, before my string of 40+ mile weeks, I really hadn't been running a lot of miles per week (probably an average of 30).

Next week is my first official week of marathon training. My schedule calls for 35 miles with a long run of only 10 miles. Should be do-able, as long as my hip isn't seriously messed up.

So, as cliché as it sounds, remember to do what I should have done (especially this morning) - LISTEN TO YOUR BODY!

1 comment:

  1. I have to admit, I've been horrible about making my way around the blogosphere and leaving comments. Just wanted to let you know that I've been reading up via my Google Reader. You're doing great so far Colin! I'm super excited to see that you are planning to run a marathon. Looks like we'll be running one on the same weekend in May.

    ReplyDelete