Part 3/3. Recovery

Final installment. I bet nobody could sleep awaiting it’s arrival…All 3 people who see this.

Well let’s talk recovery. After the race I was forced to stay on my feet for a few hours. That was fine. I enjoyed taking it all in. I had a lot of trouble eating, the roof of my mouth was blistered and everything burned. I have no idea why. Around midnight I was able to get some cheese and nacho toppings down. This went on for 3 days, so most of my calories came from soft food. My muscles were soar, not as bad as after Cleveland Marathon though. The only trouble I had was the weight of the bed sheets on my bruised toes. I too 3 days off…which was incredibly weird. I didn’t know what to do with my self. Thursday I swam easy, Friday I swam and ran. I was really slow but, nothing hurt. Friday night I got good and drunk, enough to taste those last 2 beers twice. Sunday I hopped back on the wagon. Biked 45 minutes ran 8 miles. Although I was slow and ran out of energy fast nothing hurts. Now I’m back to normal, 2 hr ride Monday, hour swim 45 minute run today. I ate almost 2 lbs of gummy bears and a 2 lb bag of twizzlers over the weekend. So you can see I’m really enjoying my favorite foods now.

So it’s over. I am having a little trouble with all that. Lot’s of unnamed guilt. I’ve lost something that I held very close for a year. Right now I have no goals set, my 2010 race schedule is a mess, who knows. I’m looking forward to some trail running, and concentrating on an early season run goal. I just miss it a little. I am happy to be around the family more, although I’m not to sure they are. Oh well, they just have to get used to me again.

I’ve evaluated my race and broke down my deficiencies. I know exactly what they are and with a few changes to my training I think I can drop quite a bit of time. Am I looking too far into the future? No. I just need to train some speed on the run, maybe get on the bike before June. Up one more swim day. Remember I did 95% of my weekday training in the morning and at lunch. Only a few Thursdays at night.

I’ve met some wonderful athletes. I’ve seen how supportive my family is, and that makes me luckier than most. I had an entourage of 12 in KY. Pretty cool. I like to give them a show when they come out. So it's not all about the race time, it was everything. Lots of memories.

That’s it. Thanks.