Strangely after the race i didn't crash like i usually do. We had a long drive home from NJ and David seemed more tired than I was. Ate quite a bit of food at the post race party and then ordered in some Thai Curry for dinner, but didn't over eat and wasn't terrible hungry. Looking forward to allowing myself to eat carbs as much as i want for the next few days. On Monday I awoke to feeling similar to when you have the flu. My chest is still congested and my body aches, but nothing in particular is sore. Well my calves are tight and that's a new one for me. Between clients did some foam rolling and stretching. Throughout the day i just took it easy and did take a nap in the afternoon. Tuesday was much like Monday except my chest feels better, but i'm still lethargic. For the first time following a race i don't feel motivated to do anything. Usually whenether my body feels great or not I have a mental urge to do some exercise, but not this time around. I don't know how much of this is due to the race but feel it's a combination of the race and still having this cold. Did more stretching and foam rolling on Tuesday as well.
On Wednesday i was still feeling lethargic, but muscles all feel fine. By mid day i got the urge to run and decided to just get out for an easy jog. I coughed a lot at the beginning of the run and although i wasn't thinking about pace at all was surprised how slow it was. That's a good clue to stop and go home and rest some more. Only ran 2.5 miles and pace was 10:12.
Thursday i continued to rest my body, still not even feeling like doing any weight training and i've been eating whatever i want which is not a good thing. For instance, board between clients, went to have coffee and a muffin even though i had brought my Isalean shake with me as well as a banana. Hope tomorrow i'm feeling up for the task of running again. Put my energy into setting up my next race. Signed up for the Paris marathon 4/11/2010. David already has his airline tickets so decided now was the time for me to take some action. Also started working on my training program. It will be a 26 week program with a nice long base period. Looking forward to having more time to train (never had a plan this long) and therefore i can put in a longer sharpening phase. Last year the sharpening phase was real short and I feel I worked too hard because of the shorter period. This program will also be more forgiving if i need to take a day off because of weather or travel.
Friday im feeling like it's ok to run. Not coughing much today and my body doesn't feel achy anymore. From my house i jogged easy to the bridge. I took the hills real slow and the flats and downhills probably a little too fast for my first real post race run, but it felt good. Didn't cough during the run but did hack a bid after. Averaged about a 9:20mm fter a 10 min warm up which is about where i should be for an easy run on hills.
Saturday is my first long run since the race on Sunday. I warmed up 10 minutes at 10mm to the bridge. The main set was 57 minutes over the bridge, up the west side and back over the brige and down court street. Miles for the main set were 6.35 and my pace average was 9:00, exactly where it should be for my marathon goals. I stopped at the hardware shop for an o ring for my water pack and finished with a cool down all down hill for a little over a mile. Everything feels good although it felt like more effort than i would normally predict for an easy long run covering only 8.5 miles. I'm still congested, but itns' not apparent at rest. Was coughing a bit during the run.
I've been looking forward to sunday for a while. I met this great guy in the bike shop who invited me out on long bike rides with him. I don't know a lot of courses and was getting bored with the 9W rides i did during tri training all summer. And i don't like having to drive over the bridge and take away from training time by commuting.
Anthony lives in Brooklyn as well and we met on a corner at 9:15am and planned for a 3 hour ride. As he described the route on the phone i got the feeling that this was going to be longer than three hours. If i needed to turn back at an hour and a half i could, but it was a really nice day and decided to go along with his plan.
We ended up in long island, ending at point lookout which is almost to Jones beach. We started on 4th ave, rode over the path running along bay ridge, past coney island and along the belt parkway in the Jamaica Bay area. All this was familiar. We passed one bridge and took the second to the broad challel?? Continued out to the rockaways, passing atlantic beach, long beach, lido beach and ended at point lookout. It was a nice sunny day but a cool breeze. I wore just the right amount of clothing. The ride out felt easy and we cruised at about 17mph even with all the traffic lights. We stopped for some food. I had an egg sandwich while Anthony indulged in his regular treat for that route, apple pie ala mode. As we headed back the wind had picked up. I didn't feel like there was wind at out back when we went out, but there was a stiff wind returning home. We took a different bridge back over the channel and followed ocean parkway back into Brooklyn. On the way back my left knee started to hurt quite a bit. I did some drafting as i was getting tired around the 4 h our mark and was not expecting this wind. Total time was 5:33min. I didn't look at my monitor at all during the ride, just went with the flow and that was the whole point of this ride. My cadence was about 72 on the flats, hr av 124, av speed 13.33 and total distance a whopping 74 miles. Yikes. Thoroughly enjoyed my shower that afternoon and then started cooking dinner. Iced my knee that night as well.