Wheeler Farm Loops

We spent the night up in Smithfield, which was really nice because it meant not getting in the car after the race / award ceremony. Slept in and once we woke up, Andrea and I went for about a one-hour walk. I usually go for a short jog the morning after a marathon, but today I just felt like walking. Andrea noticed that I seemed more content with this race than after most others. I definitely feel that way.

The drive back to SLC was broken up w/ 2 games of bowling, a game of mini-golf, and 4 rounds in the batting cage. Excellent cross training :-) 

Before dinner we went out for a short jog to shake out the legs, 2.5 miles really easy. Nothing hurts specifically. Hamstring was a little tight but not as bad as yesterday. Of the 4 "day after marathon" runs I've done, this one felt the best. I've been doing a lot of icing and letting Andrea work her massage magic (torture). I'm adamant about making sure I am very recovered before I start running for real again. If I play my cards right, I think I can swing one more short and sweet training cycle this fall and go after a half-marathon PR. I'm going to continue to listen to the feedback I'm getting from my body and not force anything. 

Hmmmm the print version of the Herald Journal made a slight typo...

AM - 3 mile easy jog, most of it w/ Andrea.

PM - 50 minutes in a hyperbaric chamber (gimmick? probably - but I had a groupon for the session, nothing else to do, and it was just up the street), then Andrea and I walked a (1.1 mile) loop around the horsepark. Stupid smoke in the air!

AM - 5 mile loop up on campus, sooooo slowly.

PM - Walked a mile (Old Man Murphy style) home from the emissions testing place. The did some yardwork/cleaning (in our 20 square foot patio area) that I've been putting off for about a month. 

AM - 3.6 miles, most of it w/ Andrea (she is doing some modified Gallo-walking these days). Then rode my bike up to work - only marginally faster than it takes me to run... and significantly slower than my race pace in the marathon.

PM - Biked home and then went for a short walk. 

Renee Metivier Baillie did an interview w/ RW yesterday... I thought this quote was a pearl of wisdom and worth sharing for those who didn't see it...

"It's hard for a runner to get it into her head that this workout doesn't matter. You measure yourself sometimes based on your workouts, but I'm beginning to realize -- and you think I would have realized it a long time ago -- that it doesn't really matter what you do in practice. No one sees that. No one cares. It's important, yes, but it's what you do when you get to that race [that counts]. I've been leaving it too much at practice. I didn't show [at the Trials] how hard I'd been working because I was in pain ... I was very upset afterwards. You want to be able to do everything you can, and if you don't make it, at least you gave it your best shot. I didn't feel like I was able to, and it was hard. But I learned a valuable lesson from that. I'm 30 now, but the lessons still come!" 

AM - 4.7 miles w/ Andrea, then rode my bike up to work - shaving 3:50 off my time from yesterday... amazing what a minor seat post adjustment will do.

The legs were pretty much feeling back to normal by Tuesday, mentally I'm charged up and ready to run for real again... but my right hamstring is still a bit creaky. Not surprising, considering I ran hard on it for another hour once it started to act up in the race (and it was already a bit fatigued by that point). I'll continue to err on the side of caution until I feel its close to 100%. I have already trained through a few minor "tweaks" this year - which I didn't really blog about :-) - so I don't feel like its wise to continue to push my luck.

PM - Biked home. 

AM - 5 miles easy, then biked up to work. Shaved another 2:38 off my time from yesterday!

PM - Biked home, then a short walk. 

The old hometown newspaper called me the other day... they ran an article about the marathon. This has already made my Grandma's day today :-) And they labeled TOU as a "prestigious" marathon - a title usually reserved for Boston, etc. I think we can all agree that is accurate!

AM - 5 miles. Soft surface loops at the horsepark. Hammy feels like its coming around. No need to rush it, but I'm optimistic that I won't even remember what I did to it in a few more days.

Just for fun, here's my average paces for my last seven days of running - 8:30, 8:58, 8:46, 8:58, 8:47, 8:38, 8:01. I can't even blame Andrea, because I keep jogging when she has been taking her Gallo-walk breaks :-)

PM - 7 miles, back at the horsepark. Not quite a brisk pace, but maybe as Kevin would say - a crisp pace. Best I've felt in the past couple days, in terms of not feeling like I am doing any damage at all to the hamstring. Thankful for that - even though I kinda hated taking this week so easy, it was worth it. Sorry Andrea for being a basketcase during eight days of no double runs.