Recovery is hard work

Usually I love the week after a marathon. You have a legitimate reason to lay around and order people to rub your legs and feet. How well this works depends on what time of day it is, who is home, and how much bribery chocolate I have left. This time around I just feel like a slug. I have recovered really well from the marathon. My big toe has somehow been fixed by running 26 miles. I've only felt a few little twinges of pain from it. My right foot still has some soreness on the top of my foot. But other than that, my body has felt great. And it felt that way about 3 days after the marathon. Not wanting to make a mistake and do too much too soon, on Wednesday I took my body out for a little run. It was just a two mile barefoot run but it felt great. The tops of my feet still hurt. I came home and iced them. On Friday I did a 3 mile barefoot run. It felt even better. And the tops of my feet felt better. So on Saturday I headed out for an 8 mile run. 5 of it was barefoot until the rain got to be too much and my feet started feeling tender. Come to find out I had gotten a blister. I stuck on my monkey feet and finished it out. I didn't dare lift weights yet so I just did push ups to make sure that I could still do them. 3 sets of 40 Tuesday and 3 sets of 50 Thursday. I'll have to start back up on the push up challenge after the next marathon.

This week has been about the same. I feel like a slug. The holiday weekend didn't help. My teenager was driving me crazy and I felt emotionally spent. We had company and I feel like I'm still recovering from the weekend. I feel like I need a nap every day. I did 3 sets of pushups again yesterday. 40 apiece. I did a 6.5 mile barefoot run and got blisters of the heat. I waited until the middle of the day and the asphalt was hot. Well, relatively hot. Utah's weather is really messed up lately. We had snow this weekend with our highs in the 50's and then it was 39 degrees yesterday morning but 75 by the afternoon. I really hope that my feet adjust and that summer weather and the heat won't always make blisters. I've really been looking forward to summer and more barefoot running. That has been the upside of all this downtime. I've been able to do every run barefoot. I get to finish out this week and then start tapering again for next week's marathon. I don't really know what kind of mileage I'm even going to run. Like I said, I feel like a slug.

I tried to go for a bike ride last night. It resulted in my first crash of the season. And it was less than a block from my house. Stupid stop signs and stupid clips. My hip and right hand and arm still feel banged up this morning. And my pride is bruised. Right in front of 3 guys hanging out on their front porch. All got up to make sure I was o.k. Why, oh why can't I ever fall when no one is watching? Heather and I went for ice cream to celebrate her getting her boot off! Yay!

Meet White Wilma and Blue Betty! (Our bikes!)

I'm also feeling really nervous for this upcoming marathon. I had such a good experience with Ogden and I felt really mentally prepared. What if it doesn't work this time? What if....? I have a million different answers to fill that in that space. I guess that's the beauty of the marathon. You never know what to expect.

In the meantime, I'll be keeping myself busy with last week of school events, getting ready for a ballet performance, working in the yard, and working out our new summer schedule. I really do love summer and having the kids home. I love the freedom that it brings and the fun things we get to do.

Do you have big plans for the summer? Please tell me about them so I can live vicariously through you.