Months of training, thought, and preparation.   Then in just over 7 hours it’s all over.

Now What?

Recovery, of course.

Many people and training plans thing that it all ends with the race, but it doesn’t.   There is more to recovery than sitting back and eating some bon bons.   Not that I had those, but I did treat myself to a chocolate fudge waffle with ice cream and chocolate sauce.

Although, I don’t really think that had anything to do with recovery and was just a yummy celebratory treat.   Although, I can totally justify it as recovery:)  That being said, recovery is an important part of training.

Depending upon what app I look at my calorie burn during the ultra was over 4,000.    How many calories I burned the day really is not exact.   Some sources put it as high as 6,000 and others as low as 3,000.    All I know is that I burned a lot even with the eating of the peanut M&M and the guzzling of the soda at the aid stations. (soda is the best on a run like this!)    The funny thing though is that often after even a normal long run, I’m not hungry.   This is one of the reasons that I usually use a recover drink instead.   On the road, my choice is always a large Caramel Latte iced with whole milk.    I try to add a protein bar, banana or something else too.

Once I was done, running. I did do some stretches but really not much.   I did what I could as I needed to get on the road.   One thing that I totally understand but on the day of the race I thought added insult to injury is that once finished, I needed to make the LONG walk to my car carrying my bucket of supplies.   I’m guessing it added at least another mile.   I viewed this as an active cool down.

Once I made it to my car, it was time to shower.   You know your a runner if using shower wipes and putting fresh deodorant on next to your car counts.   Hey, I had to do something because even I didn’t want to be in the car with me until I wiped some of the stench off.  I will say the best feeling was taking off my sneakers and socks and putting on some flip flops.   Then off to find a Dunkin Donuts.

Sitting in a car for over an hour really isn’t the best way to start recovery off, but until a magic carpet is invented that I can stretch out on this will have to do.   Besides, I came home to an empty house as my hubby had taken the boys out to dinner per my request.   I was able to soak in a hot bath and by the time I got out and big beautiful chicken taco salad was waiting for me.

Day one recovery is easy because you really are too sore to do much.   Day two, you feel a little better and think maybe.    I wisely took day two to get a massage.    The problem with recovery is that by day three you feel good and by day four you think I’m good as new.    But I’ve been burned by this feeling more than once.   I’m feeling good because I’m taking it easy.   Very easy.   I did meet a friend yesterday who is doing the Couch to 5K program.   I needed a walk and this was a great way to test the waters.   Felt good, but I was glad when it was time to walk again.   Tomorrow will be day five of recovery and I am set to go for a nice EASY 3 miles run.   My coach is the one who capitalized easy.

I will say that my family is eating very well during my recovery.   Since I’m not running for hours at a time, this does allow for other things and I’m not up for the bags of mulch yet:)

Bottom line is

We train hard.

We Run Hard.

We must respect that and allow ourselves time to recover.

To all things there is a season…

What do you do during recovery when your not running?