Just after my 50 miles ultra my body recovered pretty well. I was just sore for a couple of days and 3 days after I was biking and doing elliptical and 5 days after I was already running again. My legs are still a little tired and even though I am not sore at all I can tell because they feel very heavy when I am running, it is like if I were carrying a rock in each one. I have been trying to do some tempo run to loosen then up. Anyway the recovery has been really good and I am very happy because my body has been a very good partner and I have been taking care of him as best as I can.
I try to eat healthy most of the time, I take my supplements and I do at home the exercises the physical therapist recommended me to strengthen my hip.
A very strong cold put me down for some days and I was not able to run for almost 1 week which was not in my plans since I need to keep up training for the NYC marathon. The cold doesn't want to leave me yet but at least I can now run!
Speaking about the marathon, I haven't been very excited about it this year. I am not sure why but during the last week while everyone else seemed to be getting into marathon mood I didn't and I started to feel a little apathetic about it.
I was speaking with a fellow runner and co-worker the other day and when I mentioned it he said that I was feeling that way because for me now 26 miles is just a training run and to be honest I was also thinking the same. I think that my little baby for the year was my 50 miller and I never thought about the marathon until now. I dedicated all my efforts to the 50 miller and now that I have reached my goal I was not feeling anything special about running 26 miles. I can't believe that just a year ago I was not even sure I could finish the marathon!!!
Last night I was speaking with my friend John and told him that I was not excited about the marathon and he said something like " how come? it is the NYC marathon!!!" but that wasn't enough to convince me :(
This morning I ran the Poland Spring Marathon Kickoff, a 5 miles race that kickoff marathon week. I was really tired because I went to bed very late and I also had too much sangria and food with friends but I decided to still run it and just take it easy....a " fun run" as runners call races when they know they won't perform well!!! The day before I ran 6 miles in the same course and I did it very slow, legs were still feeling heavy and I jut did a shameful 10 minutes miles!!! almost a turtle and so I was not expected today to do anything better.
Incredibly and even though I took the first 2 miles very easy I was able to ran an average of 8:40 minutes, which is far from my best time but still good considering the circumstances :).
When I was running I met a lot of friends and coaches around the course that were cheering the runners ..."Go Claudia" " Well done CHICA" "Looking good!!" it was so nice hearing my name and the cheers!!! and that was exactly what I needed to remember what the NYC marathon is about...thousands of people cheering you on while you pass by, screaming your name and why not admiring you in some way.
I think my Marathon Spirit is back!!!
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