Cool Runnings!

No miles today.  I don't remember ever being this sore after a race.  I take consolation in the fact that some of the elites on the blog feel the same way as I do, although I would say for me I feel like my lower body got run over by a Mack truck.  I am not even at the stage where I can attempt to do any light jogging or even cross-training, when standing up from a sitting position or sitting from a standing position causes me a great deal of pain.  I will give it a few more days and see how my legs feel - they actually seem to be better today (Tuesday) then they were the previous day.  Maybe one or two more days of forced inactivity, and I will be ready to start out again.  I have given myself the goal of no more than 1 week of no running, earlier if possible.

Rode the bike about 8 miles, counting as about 3 miles of easy running.  Started out slow just to get the legs working again.  The pain in my legs has slowly been decreasing throughout the day.  No tylenol or ibuprofen.  Gradually increased the pace until I was cruising along at a pretty good clip.  Felt really good at the end.  I am finally able to crouch down and have my legs actually able to support me - I couldn't do that yesterday - they would just collapse on me.  I will probably do the bike one more day, and then start running again on Thursday.  I am going to start looking for a 10K to do before the end of the year.  Right now, I am looking at doing the Shiprock marathon in April, which also has some downhill portions, and I think next year that I am going to run the White Mountain 1/2 marathon for the hill experience (both up and down) to prepare me for St. George, assuming I make it into the lottery.

Approx. 7 miles on the bike this evening.  I will count this as 1/2 for running purposes.  Felt like a pretty good aerobic workout, good workout for my legs as well.  I don't have a road bike, just a mountain bike, but I got it going pretty good again.  I think that this is really helping with the muscle soreness, like Sasha said.  I could actually hop up and down today, and was jogging around at work today.  Still felt sore, but not to the extent that I couldn't use my legs.  I am pretty happy to be getting back to normal after 3-4 days, given that this was quite an effort for me, and I am also extremely happy about where my aerobic capacity is at.  Looked for 10K's - nothing through the end of the year that was not on a Sunday - bummer.  I will at least see if I can get in a 5K to get my PR down, and will look for a 1/2 marathon before the Shiprock marathon.

PM - Ran 2.5 miles for my first official run after SGM.  I could tell that my legs were not yet back to normal - I could feel it in my quads the entire run, but my lungs felt great.  I actually found myself running faster than I thought every time I glanced down at my watch.  Total time for the run was 19:57, average pace of 7:59/mile.  Felt good to get out and run.  I am probably going to do 4-6 miles tomorrow, nice and easy.

AM - Ran 6 easy miles.  My legs felt much better today, although still not back to 100%.  My body is still wanting to run faster, and I am having a hard time keeping my pace slow.  Glad to get in normal miles today.  Total time was 49:17, average pace of 8:12/mile.  This was due to the first and last miles being faster.