If you're not sick of my blogging yet and want to know how I'm feeling the day after, here ya go. For starters, I slept nine and a half hours last night. I didn't wake up one time. I think my body was basking in the glory of its PR. Coming down from the high of racing is like the day after Christmas. So much buildup, such a great day, then suddenly you're back to the status quo. When I got to Bo's this morning I was hoping someone would ask me how I am so I could tell them about my race. Maybe I'll go to the grocery story and wear my race medal and see if anyone asks.
Recovery so far has consisted of coffee, church, and lunch at the Olive Garden to celebrate the memory of one great wife and mother. Marathoner Hal Higdon once recommended recovering one day per each mile run. That would be 32 days (I calculated that myself!) of recovery purgatory. No way I'm going to do that. Don't get me wrong. It's not like I'm going to do another race anytime soon. I'll do the sensible thing: build back slowly, gradually start getting in my steps again, and (per the advice of my daughter) get a professional pedicure. Let's just say I have very little soreness today, I can think about the High Bridge trail and not be totally repulsed, and I'm not sick.
I'll take at least a week off before doing even a short run, no matter how much I'll hate it. I'll build up slowly, with patience. I will listen to my body. It will tell me. Right now it's telling me to replenish energy stores and repair damaged tissue. Even though I'm physically resting, my brain is going a million miles an hour. Knowing when to say "when" when you're Type A is so hard, but there will always be another run and another race. Rest days are like taking daily vitamin pills -- not always something you want to do but something that keeps you feeling and looking better in the long run. I've discovered I'm a big risk-taker (bet you didn't know that), perhaps too much so. I need to be challenged. I need to find out how much effort I can put out, what I can endure, if I measure up. But -- if a fitness program is to succeed, it must promote good health.
Words will never be able to express what running has meant to me.
It's a lot easier to grow old if we are neither bored nor boring. There is no limit to reaching our God-given potential. That "great cloud of witnesses" (Heb. 12:1), who now rest from their race, are cheering us on.
Okay. I think I've worn out all my friends and family and they are getting pretty tired of all this talking about running!