Running With Jack

I woke up Sunday morning, the day after my 50K race, feeling much better than I have ever felt after a longer race. I had a little soreness in the quads and a small blister on each of my middle toes, the latter from crashing downhill on the asphalt “trails”. Other than that I felt good enough to walk around a flea market for 1½ hours with my wife yesterday.

This morning most of the soreness was gone, but the longer that I sit at my desk at work the stiffer I am getting. I think I am going to use the rest of my lunch time to take a walk.

This evening I want to go for a half-hour jog, it has been my experience that I recover quicker if I do some moderate exercise during recovery week. I am going to try to wait a couple weeks before I start up my long runs again. I am already having to remind myself that the next few weeks is rest time – no hard training allowed!

Actually I need a little time now to figure out next year’s goals and any specific training that I will need to meet these goals. As is typical for me after a race I have a huge appetite for the next big race. Unfortunately this time I have to wait and see how my wife’s job hunting is going to go before I start registering. At the very least I will be running the 50-miler and several local marathons. With the exception of the 50-miler, most of the ultra-marathons require more extensive travel, therefore I need to wait and see if my wife has work or not.

This week I am going to spend more time cross-training (XT), then probably 2-3 weeks of lower mileage running mixed with XT. I plan on doing a few fun runs over the next couple months, mostly shorter cross-country runs. I did see an add for a 11K Mountain Run on November 4, it starts along the Neckar River near Heidelberg and ends on top of the mountain overlooking the entire valley. I can’t miss that, right ;-)