Recovery

It's been a little over a week since that really long run. 54 miles on roads should take a good beating on any previously sane person's joints, muscles, ligaments and mental capacity.

I fully expected to be needing a wheelchair to get around for at least a month week after that run, but the excitement and "glow" seemed to never subside - all I have been wanting to do is run more. I gather it must have been the special powers I got from my impromptu finish chute dance. Call Me Maybe came on so I had no choice. In retrospect, I have no idea what I was doing.

Psycho-dancing?

Thankfully, no arm muscles pulled but it was close.

I forced some sanity on myself last week and stayed off my feet as much as I could. I fought urges to go for a run in the middle of the night. Recovery week looked like this:

Monday: Sit on yo' butt, lady (Rest)

Tuesday: Swim 45 minutes with c. 20 minutes of pull-only drills

Wednesday: 60 minute aerobic run and track workout (speed felt SO good)

Thursday: Hot Power Yoga (90 minutes of sweaty bliss)

Friday: Let's play find the couch and stay on it (Rest)

Saturday: 90 minutes aerobic on mostly trails, rolling hills (but not mountains)

Sunday: Lots of walking, short spin session, squats etc. Low-key day.

Looking back, it all sounds pretty sane. I'm so proud. To celebrate, I went for 3 runs (13 miles total) and a hike yesterday.

Inventory: 1 tempo run (6 miles), 1 mountain climbed (2 hours), 1 sprint because I was running late for my run club talk/meeting (2 miles), 1 easy sunset run (5 miles). It was super fun.

I am a big fan of running more than once a day, splitting up the mileage. It is supposed to reduce the risk of overuse injury, since you're giving your body a chance to (partially) recover. Given you are working on tired muscles during the later rounds, you're still benefiting from the cumulative mileage and are training muscles to become more efficient at clearing away metabolic by-products still lingering from the previous run. 

There has, however, been a minor issue with an unhappy right ankle. I'm not sure what to make of it because it's not a typical injury. Nevertheless, is serves as an awesome excuse to whip out my favorite leisure time reading: Netter's Atlas of Human Anatomy. It's really captivating. 

Problem solving

I concluded this is an extensor digitorum longus tendon issue. There is a proper bump on it and it hurts when it should, but the swelling is hardly noticeable and I can certainly run on it (not painless). And I obviously have. This is probably a very stupid idea, by the way. Today will be a day where I am thankful for BioFreeze and fully on board with the R.I.C.E approach. Hey, it could be a lot worse. 

Less than 2 months to go till...Rio Del Lago 100k on October 6th! Oh boy.