Day 3. 20 minutes and 46 seconds of the old lady shuffle.
Weather: 60 °F, 36% humidity, wind 9 S.
I got out and went really slowly like I was supposed to, though I did speed up slightly over the course of the run. McMillan's instructions say to run on flat terrain. That's not really possible for me, but I did try to take a less hilly route than usual. I went 46 seconds longer than I was supposed to because I was too far from home when the 20 minutes were up. I kept running until I got to the bottom of my hill sprint hill, then walked up that hill and home. I'm still feeling tight, particularly in my left hamstring. That's the only muscle that's really hurting at this point. It was always a little tight for the weeks before the marathon.
When I got to work yesterday one of my coworkers had decorated my office with streamers and confetti and congratulations signs. Some of my coworkers are more excited about what I've done than my family is.
I'm starting to think fairly seriously about the American Discovery Trail marathon, which runs from Palmer Lake to Colorado Springs and is on Labor Day. It's a downhill course mostly on packed dirt trail and has slightly more overall elevation drop than Ogden (and is at a higher elevation overall). I was thinking I'd like to do a fall marathon and this one would be the least stress and cost to me and my family since it's close to home. My only hesitation about it is that it's a little sooner than I would like it to be. If I take 4 weeks to recover from Ogden, I'll have 12 weeks left after that to prepare for that marathon, one of which I'll be spending on a cruise ship. I guess I can run laps around the track on the ship. | 