Post Goal Race

Two days after the Flying Pig Marathon, I felt completely 100%.  Speedy recoveries always amaze me.  It's like I feel proud of my own body for bouncing back as quickly and as well as it does.  By Tuesday evening, I felt strong and invincible.  In retrospect, my slower pace for the marathon is what contributed to my complete lack of injury.  Because I was so much slower than my usual pace, I was mostly just trudging along.

Usually after a race, a couple of miles the day or two after helps tremendously with recovery.  I didn't feel like I needed it after Flying Pig, but I was going to get back out there and run a few miles on Wednesday anyway.  Unfortunately, I pulled some kind of muscle in my neck on Wednesday and I was in all kinds of pain.  My head only had about a 140 degree turn radius before I felt some kind of pain.  So on Wednesday, I was back to remembering the fragility of my body.  Running a marathon damaged nothing.  Doing nothing hurt a neck muscle. 

It's Friday and that pain has subsided.  Now the neck just feels like I slept on it funny.  I plan to go out there tomorrow and do a loop around the Arboretum.  I signed up to run 20 miles next Saturday.  Yes, it was kind of crazy when I had signed up to do it.  I was thinking that I didn't want to let all my hard work training for the marathon just melt away.  Barry had recommended that I at least wait until I got through Flying Pig, but I knew that a race was the best way to ensure that I wouldn't just sit on my butt for the next 5 weeks eating ice cream.  Mmm, ice cream.

I'm thinking about my next marathon and have started looking into marathons in the fall.  I'd like to run one sooner than that, but summers aren't kind to marathon runners.  The only problem is I'm not sure where I'll be in the fall.  Meanwhile though, my goal for the summer is a sub-2:00 half marathon.  I'm signed up for the Madison Mini-Marathon, which I also ran and loved last year.  I'm also eyeing the Fort Atkinson Half marathon in the middle of June.  I'd like to start incorporating some quality runs into my training, i.e. tempo runs, interval training, hill climbs, etc and I kind of want to use the Fort Atkinson Half and the Madison Mini as comparisons for a before and after.

But who knows.  I always feel a bit lazy after a goal race.