Greetings from Recovery-Land

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Strangely enough, I couldn’t find a “Greetings from Recovery-land” postcard online, but since I last saw my legs feeling fresh in Staten Island, this will have to do.

My buddy Hal Higdon calls this week after the marathon “zero week.”

He says to treat it pretty similarly to taper week–so it still includes lots of rest. Some people get antsy to run right away after a big race, but I personally like to reflect on my race from the couch. I like to think that running a marathon buys me weeks and weeks of rest days.

Monday, I couldn’t have even run if I wanted to. My legs felt like they were taken into an alley and hit over and over and over again. Which, considering I took something like 60,000 steps on Sunday, is pretty accurate. I went up to Central Park to try to get my medal engraved and felt like I was doing the same Shuffle of Death I did immediately after crossing the finish line. My legs were still absolutely dead.

Tuesday, I started walking around a bit more. I probably walked 2-3 miles and got the lactic acid moving. I went to physical therapy, and my physical therapist did some massage, and I walked out feeling nearly human.

Wednesday, I went in for a real massage. Before you get all jealous that I got a massage, imagine running a marathon–that includes five bridges–and then getting a deep-tissue massage. OW.

Yesterday, I couldn’t find anyone else I could pay to make my legs feel better, and I thought if I went out for a run, I could feel some of the glory of finishing the marathon again.

I really don’t know how people do back-to-back marathons. I felt sort of okay while I was running yesterday, but since then, I’ve felt all sore and achy all over again.

Apparently 26.2 miles + 4 days makes 3 miles feel sort of like 26.2 all over again. I’d also finally recovered from feeling so exhausted, but that’s back, too. I think I actually entered a time warp yesterday and ran 26.2 miles again without realizing it.

Point taken, body. I’ll let you rest a bit more.

Like I said yesterday, I’m trying to get back to a healthier diet. During marathon training, I definitely eschewed everything else for my sweet, sweet carbs. (Mostly so that I would never have an upset stomach while running.)

This morning, I loaded up on veggies at Trader Joe’s.

The result? Bacon + Brussels sprouts + maple syrup via this recipe from Good Housekeeping. (Picked merely because of SEO. It was the first result when I googled bacon + Brussels sprouts + maple syrup.) I ate them over some brown rice.

There are no veggies in here, but it was the first really strong craving I’ve had since the marathon, so here it ist. I’m glad to not be on a training schedule right now, but it is weird to not have any workouts this weekend I’m supposed to be doing. I’m doing yoga tonight, and my guess is I’ll try running again one of the weekend days. The other one is a total wildcard.

Hoping to leave Recovery-Land soon, but it can take up to four weeks sometimes for your body to fully heal.