Patience; the new endurance sport.

I know I am the peanut gallery, but the recovery jogs mean just really slow and relaxed. McMillan running has a calculator to help with knowing your recovery paces(right brain approach). The more left brain approach is to just run it nice and easy, like you have been doing.

I am working on your birthday present. Just know that if I were rich, this would be a present to be cherished and remembered forever. As I am not, it is more likely to create a horrific scar in your memory of what a STRANGE yet creative friend I am ;D Oh boy, aren't you special :)

I can't wait!! I am excited to party with soup. It may get a little out of hand. I have two in mind to bring. What do you think about a walk/jog on the JPR Oct 17th? With or without hot cocoa and breakfast?

Oh Luz, your recovery jogs are PERFECT and SO BEAUTIFUL! Sorry I haven't been around when you needed me! Life has been crazy since Sat.

Conventional wisdom on recovery is do a mirror image of your taper, a reverse tapering as far as mileage goes. The intensity is scaled way down. Very easy jog like you've been doing to get the soreness and tightness out.

Active recovery exercises include walking, jogging, swimming, stationary bike. Massage and stretching of warmed up muscle is GREAT!

Keep up the nutrition with more emphasize on protein the first half of the week for muscle repair. Hydration is very important. Even though you're running less, your body needs the fluids to bathe and flush out the toxins or by-product of the stress and damage done to muscle cells.

You ran an AWESOME race! Very proud of your performance and WAY to go with a BQ! Are you gonna run Boston 2010? I sure hope so! Love to have "Diamond Girl" there! GREAT JOB, Luzy!

Smooth!!! I wanted to find you so bad in St. George. I wanted to run into your arms and tell you how I BQ'd and how much I owe to you (and a few courageous others) for the strength and encouragement I received these past few weeks. I was not expecting SG to be so marred for you. I felt terrible about how affected you were by the death of your friend's father, I would have done the same. Grief is so powerful and I hope you can take some relief knowing that the pain you felt, may have eased hers. Losing a parent (even a bad one) is so life altering. You ran the marathon courageously and in spite of the emotional rollar coaster and physical inconveneinces. I am so glad, that even if it was not your best race, that you are going to Boston. You bet your bottom dollar I'm going, and I will be heartbroken if you aren't going this year. Last summer while I was in Boston, I walked through China town and kep thinking, if only Smooth were here, she'd show me how to eat here! Thank you for the perfect recovery advice. I've been intuitively doing sort of that, but it's nice to know an expert's advice. Hey, wanna run JRP Oct 17th? I'd love to have a fun, easy, walk jog party before we never see each other again until next April :)

THANKS for your kind words Luz! I wish I could have seen you at the finisher circle and hugged you and felt your victorious glow. You are a dear friend and I have loved you the first time I met you on the JRP last winter.

This year at Boston, I took Rhett (he's on this blog and the forum we both on) to China town after church on Sunday, the day before the race. He was such a good sport and tried everything we ordered, including the saltyfish friedrice. We will definitely go to Chinatown for dimsum next year. I have already booked a room the day after the race in the same hotel. Teena, Kelli also reserved rooms there, the Boston Radisson.

Anyway, right now I am toying with the idea of "creating" a marathon for Beth since she didn't get to run SG because of her father's passing unexpectedly. She was at the expo for no more than 10 min and got the news and turned around to drive home. We may do the Pony Expess 50/100 miler on Oct 16. If we do that I may not be able to run much on the 17th. How many are you planning to run? I'd love to join you for 45 min of jogging very slowly. Keep me posted.

Luz, what a lovely run! AND a nice discussion on recovery runs. Oh, and butting in here - SMOOTH! It's so good to hear from you. I echo all of Luz's words to you about the race! The Pony express 50 would be GREAT for Beth, you are such a great friend to think about doing that for her!

Luz, okay...here is MY question about recovery. I know it's not just all about the 'jog' I want to know like daily sleep, eat, repeat patterns and how to know whether you're getting it back during training, NOT just after a long hard race.

That is the 'total lifestyle' question there. I do want to know how to know when it feels safe to push it again. I've thought it was safe in the past to jump right back into training, but in the long run suffered dumb injuries because of it. Smooth always brings chocolate milk for IMMEDIATE drinking after a hard run. For better or worse (I would NEVER drink it otherwise), I feel that has been a huge part of quick recovery (not sure why). She says it's the right combination of magnesium, calcium, potassium (she's a nurse and a stellar runner so I believe her). Also, I've failed to eat good protein (whey, lean animal, legumes after hard runs/races) and when I have, I've paid for it. Overall, I never get less than 7 hours, but I prefer 8. However, post race (Sat, Sun, Monday I slept 9 1/2). In addition, I have found that coldpressed flaxseed oil/Krill/fish oil and a routine of stretching/strengthening excersizes has kept my ligaments in better shape than they have ever been. Is that what you mean?

Smooth-- the Pony express 50/100 miler? That's your idea of 'making it up' to your friend? That's like saying "sorry you missed dinner, here let me help you eat this barrel of wheat." In any case, the run would be 'easy' meant for those of us sort of 'done' with the season and in no way prepared to take on 50/100 miles like some people. In any case, it's just an idea I'm forming. If not, you'll all just have to come to the birthday/soup and lemon cake party at Michelle's house next month :)

yes, kind of. I guess I'm just thinking about what he said with always giving 5%, but making sure you get 8% back. If you don't get it back you're going into 'debt' with your body. So...how do I keep getting that full 8% back daily AND ramp up to 10 miles per day? Seems nearly counter productive in my mind, but I am a pansy sometimes when it comes to pushing my body.

However, I think you're right that it comes down to good nutrition, sleep and stretching. Sleep and occasionally nutrition are the big things I need to work on! I just don't know how to know if I'm really 'recovered' or not. Maybe that's just a practice thing, like asking someone what it feels like when you're going into labor and they say "you just know". You don't know until you've done it and "you just know".

Rachel ~

After a breakthrough marathon, your body needs time to restore the assault you put it through. The length of recovery varies even within one's own experience. Soreness itself is not a good indication. You do not loose any cardiovascular fitness in the two weeks post race even if you don't run a single step. However you risk injury if you jump right into hard running.

I look at recovery like I would after simple surgery. Fortify the body with all the good stuff and plenty of sleep. Keep active during the day. Luz is doing it right by listening to your body and mind. You said it before, your body is the boss, it knows its limit. Keep it simple and enjoy the recovery which isn't a forced thing.

Recovery is probably a lot like body building or Wolff's law, where you are in a continual cycle of tearing down and then rebuilding. Smooth said to do the converse of your taper. That sounds good to me. But my guess is, that like any 'injury' if you are healthy-- it takes 7-10 days to return to 'normal'. That's where I'm headed anyway. I went to the message board and put 'recovery' in as the title and there was a post Sasha made a few years back about recovery--it was similar to the 'going into debt' theory over recovery time, but also talked about reaping/cashing in long term benefits and how and when you want to do that without putting your bigger picture in jepordy. I think being a lifelong athelete is a total lifestyle of healthy eating, sleeping, balance between life and athletic activity. Too much of any one of those things creates imbalance.

Luz, we are not running 50 miles on Oct 16. I'm toying with the idea of WALKING half my age (27) since I will be 54 on Oct 16. The hardest part is to convince someone to crew me. Such insanity!

Yes, I am going to RSVP MichelleL and come celebrate your birthday with the gang. Can't wait to see you then! YAY!!!!

It is a group birthday really-- we have a number of oct/Novembers (including Catherine). Since someone else will be making my favorite birthday cake (lemon) let me know if you have a favorite and I'll see if I can whip one up in your honor. I mean, can you have too much cake? Shut up, I already know the answer to that. But November 6th is exempt; as is Thanksgiving, Christmas and chocolate pancake labor day :)

mmmm...cake! and I wonder why I don't get the healthy lifestyle thing :)

Really though, thanks ladies for your comments. I think I get it, and after TOU Smooth suggested to me to do the reverse taper and it did work quite well. YOU are a genius Smooth!!

Are you aware that I have TWO birthdays? Oct 16 is my birthday on records. Nov 18 was the day I was born. Confused? Yes my hubby is too. So that's why I made him give me TWO celebrations.

NO, one can NEVER NEVER NEVER have too many cakes, as you can see I have TWO extra occasions to have cake! I LOVE lemon cake. I LOVE anything chocolate. The only cake I don't care for is white cake with chocolate frosting...

Oh, are husbands allowed at this group birthday celebration? My hubby's on Nov 16. He has to be the driver as I am extremely directionally challenged!

It Adults Only, so as long as he's an adult, he's cleared for landing.

Adults Only, wow, that's not exactly how I planned on it being advertised ;) So, does yellow cake with choc frosting meet your yuck list Smooth? I actually think that's super yummy.