Recovery

Last year I entered the New York City Marathon. The race started and immediately I was the last of the runners. It was embarrassing. The guy who was in front of me, second to last, was making fun of me. He said, "Hey babe, how does it feel to be last?" I replied: "Do you want to know?" and I dropped out.



Well, I don't plan on dropping out. Nor do I plan on being last. I'm not missing any runs; even the dreaded "recovery runs."

Tonight I ran 3 miles. Because I ran a tempo on Tuesday and did a double workout on Wednesday, I thought my legs needed a "recovery" run today. Normally I hate forcing myself to run slow. When I looked at the McMillan calculator, the pace based on my goal marathon time (4:20) for a recovery jog is something like 11:30 m/miles. Wow! Slow! I ended up not wearing a watch and guessed at a 3 mile route. I took it easy and it actually felt good. Relaxing, even. At 25 minutes I was stopped by a neighbor who wanted to talk about Freddie, so I even had a little 4 minute break. Afterwards, I felt refreshed enough to jog all the way home. It's been storming off and on all day and the heat and humidity hasn't broken yet but it didn't bother me. Yes, I was drenched and salty, but I don't know... maybe something about running in the early evening... things look alittle different... I took a little different route. But it was nice. Enjoyable.

Tomorrow's a scheduled rest day. Wouldn't you know, it's supposed to be gorgeous?