It's a very difficult thing to do to recover from a race that you approached as a training run. The goal heading into Lake McMurty was to use it as a up tempo long run which I accomplished. The problem is I forgot my first rule!
The elites are superhuman and I am not one of them.
I read several blogs of elite runners and sometimes forget that I'm not at their level yet and tried to head out for a run Sunday after I flew into Virginia for a conference. I went out for a slow 7 miler which was great the only problem was I ran 31 miles the day before and my legs were left drained.
Why was I in Virginia? I went out there for a conference at VMI's campus. It is a beautiful area of the country and much to my dismay I was 12 miles from the Appalachian Trail without a car... again I could have run there but sleep and recovery seemed more pertinent. The conference was wonderful, I had the opportunity to listen to the Army's senior leaders speak about the direction the Army is heading which was very exciting. Also probably good for recovery, sitting on my butt for 3 days!
After my run Sunday I woke up early Monday to run again and was sore all over. I reminded myself that I am not Mike Morton and decided to blow of running until at least that evening. Well after a long 12 hour day of lectures and classes I was longing to head out for a run but didn't have it in my legs so I choose to head out to Ruby Tuesdays with the other Cadets attending the conference. That's right I substituted beer for running and it was fantastic.
It took until Thursday for my legs to really come back to fresh and I headed out for 5 miles around Lake Elmer Thomas Park. I kept the pace very slow 8:30 ish terrified of a repeat of Monday. The run felt good and it seemed all the gunk was worked out of my legs.
Friday afternoon I was able to knock out a quick 7 miler on Fort Sill reminiscing my days with the Army 10 miler team. The pace was smooth 7:45 ish which felt comfortable and easy. I don't think I ate enough through. The next day (Saturday) I felt super flat. Dinner consisted of 3 cups of steamed veggies and 6oz of chicken. I love the idea of not eating complex carbs and eating "raw" but every time I go down the road my workouts suffer.
Saturday I headed to Burma road trail for an easy run no mileage in mind just a fun run. I knocked out 6 miles but really was feeling flat until after 3 miles. I again blamed my nutrition the day before. It's so easy to make the same mistakes again and again. What stinks is you don't see it until you start troubleshooting 4 miles into a run and then it seems to clear. I was a beautiful day out I saw 4 people out on the trail including a couple who mistook the trail for a shorter on. They ran into me 2.5 miles out and asked exasperated how far the trail went, I informed them it went out 9 miles. I guess they thought it was a 1 mile trail and turned around after a hour of hiking giving up on the end. I saw them resting at the bottom of the giant hill on my way back in.
Today I'm going to knock out a couple of easy miles but nothing significant. Next week I have a PT test on Tuesday which I'll treat as my speed work for the week. Other than that no workouts this week except a long run next weekend. If I feel good Sunday I'll replicate my long tempo work from 3 weeks ago with 2x5 mile at marathon pace.
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