The Little Things
May 20, 2015

My goal after a half marathon is to give myself a week off of any running, and instead walk, do pilates (to stretch out) and bike (for cardio and to get my legs moving again) to give myself some recovery time. After my half marathon on May 2nd, I’ve spent the last two weeks doing just that.

The first week out of the race was absolutely gorgeous outside, and a lot of my clients, when given the opportunity, will choose to walk outside for their sessions, and I didn’t want to deprive them of that opportunity (and I REALLY wanted to be outside as well). I ended up walking 19 miles in the first week after the race. That’s a little more than I normally would’ve done, but my legs felt great moving that much, and being out in the heat and sunshine was fantastic.

I did my first run post-race on the following Saturday, and did a 5k. It felt… fine. It wasn’t amazing, and it wasn’t really bad. What made me nervous was that my posterior tibial tendinitis flared up a bit later that day (on BOTH legs), and it was still bothering me a bit on Sunday. It did this after my half marathon in November, and it took about 3 weeks to really die down, which was bothersome.

running

My runs are fueled by color.

The whole next week I biked and walked a bit (not as much due to more rainy weather though) before heading out for another run this past Saturday. I wanted to try to go at least 3.1 again, but if the tendinitis was bothering me than I was planning to cut it short (since I don’t HAVE to run much right now, I don’t want to push it if things aren’t going well). My legs felt HEAVY the first two miles, and I was left wondering why my legs were heavier 2 weeks out from the race than they were a week out. Somewhere around mile 2.5 I must’ve finally loosened up enough because things got MUCH easier after that, so I decided to run a bit longer. I hit 4.2 miles before it started pouring and I darted inside (luckily I was already on my street when it started to rain), but I would’ve probably gone somewhere between 4.5 and 5 if it hadn’t rained.

It’s so weird to me how runs can be so different, both from week to week, but even within the same run. Overall I think that recovery has gone pretty well from the race, and besides for my tendinitis being a little more flared up than I’d like, I really can’t complain. I’m feeling pretty good heading into my summer season!

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