Immediate Post Race
I finished my race at 11:23 am on Sunday morning. My biggest (and only real) race injury was
chafing – the worst was something that really isn’t fit for print – which I
became acutely aware of at a pee-break around mile 83. (Sen may have heard my agonized cry from the
porto-potty) Dear lord it was so bad I
almost passed out. Second worst chafing
was belly button (I get this a lot – the drawstrings from my shorts rub across
my tummy and apparently are really irritating), and some spots on my back
rubbed pretty raw from my hydration pack.
And, I had this super weird nasty and painful raised bright red welt on
my right wrist that I had felt forming for the first 16 hours of the race when
I wore Maria’s loaned GPS as a spare on my RIGHT wrist (not used to wearing a
GPS watch), while waiting for my primary GPS on my left wrist to run out of
battery. The watch kept kind of banging
around and rubbing against the bone, and at the end of the race it was this
huge angry big red welt.
Most of these injuries were alleviated pretty quickly by
post-race shower and application of Aquaphor.
The drive home was manageable –
it was so amazing that my parents and Patty had come to support me – and
an added benefit was that I got to just melt into the front seat, nibble
tiredly at my Pop Tart (thanks Patty!), and just keep stretching. Sitting after a race is, ironically, hugely
uncomfortable as I get this awful sciatica sort of like a toothache in my ass. We stopped for food at an Arby’s about an
hour into the ride. As is often the
case, and also ironically, I still wasn’t even very hungry at that point and
not much sounded good. I ended up with a
vanilla milkshake and 4 mozzarella sticks.
Which was pretty much perfect.
It was pretty funny – there were 2 different people – one on
line at Arby’s and another walking into the rest area, that I IMMEDIATELY could
tell they had just finished the 100 miler – because the way they were walking
looked just like the way I was walking. We
exchanged tired and happy hello’s as we hobbled around Arby’s. The lunch stop was a great stretching
opportunity which kept me from getting too locked up on the drive home – and even
when I got home I was moving around moderately comfortably. The second major recovery aid was the Epsom
Salts bath I had before dinner. Only
just recently have I discovered the miraculous healing powers of Epsom
Salts. With regard to post-race
recovery, it 1) immediately reduced inflammation and irritation from chafing,
2) allowed my tired muscles to re-absorb magnesium, easing the sort of
neuropathic pain that had previously come after long races, and 3) also likely
due to magnesium absorption, drastically improved my ability to sleep after a
long race (you’d think that would be easy, but after my first 50 miler I couldn’t
sleep for 2 days).
Post Race Phase 2 –
Recovery
OK – well, I have to admit, I just kind of skipped this
phase all together. On Monday I felt… fine.
Really almost absolutely fine. No
huge residual stiffness – went on a long walk with Matthew at lunchtime. No issues going up and down stairs. I just threw in gentle stretching any time
the opportunity presented itself. Monday
is normally a rest day anyway on my training schedule.
Tuesday is not.
Tuesday is a running day. So I
ran. I wasn’t sure if I SHOULD run – but
I knew I was going to give it a try. I
pulled on my beautiful and shockingly pink shoes and I set out. And oh my god it felt like I was FLYING. In fact – I was not flying – I was running 12
minute miles – which is 1.5 to 2 minutes slower than my normal training
pace. But it FELT like flying. (My last miles on my hundred had been 16-17
minutes). More importantly – everything felt
good. No aches, no pains, no
stiffness. I was just running and
feeling great. I stopped at 6
miles. On Wednesday I went for 9. Thursday I got in 8. Friday was a rest day, and then I did a 15/12
back to back between Saturday and Sunday, topping out my first post-100 mile
race week with 50 miles of training.
Post race week 2 I got in 60 miles, and post race week 3 I hit 80.
Huh. How about
that. I had googled “post-100 mile
recovery”, and found some suggestions like taking the first week entirely off,
and then not running any more than an hour for something like 6 weeks. Of course, I didn’t look this up until my 2nd
or 3rd recovery week, so clearly that ship had sailed. And was not going to be happening in any
case.
Which is not to say I was not respecting my body’s needs… The big thing about my post race early weeks –
up to and including now – is that for almost every run except my weekly tempo
run, I ran at whatever pace my body wanted to go. That, essentially was my recovery. Letting myself run 11’s or 11:30’s that first
couple of weeks, because that was what was comfortable. Letting myself run how my body wanted to run,
rather than how my head wanted to run.
How very freeing, and intoxicating! Running, in a way that just felt joyful and
amazing – with no competitive pressure from my brain.
I had held off on signing up for any more races until after
I finished my 100 – mostly because I wasn’t sure how I’d like that distance and
I figured completing it would affect what I wanted to do next. It was probably only 1 or 2 days after the
race that I knew I needed an immediate new goal, and I pressed the button to do
CanLakes 50 miler again in October.
With a 50 miler on the horizon (about 7 weeks out from my
100), I essentially wanted to be able to ramp back up to get in a couple of
heavier mileage weeks in before having to taper again 2-3 weeks out. I
also ended up signing up for a trail marathon (tomorrow! – 9/17) as a training
run. Which meant I needed to get in some
trail miles. (The cool thing about tomorrow is that I will have running friends there - my Ragnar teammate Ed will be running the full with me, and teammate Deb and cousin Rebecca are running the half. I almost NEVER have anyone to run (hike) with!
A short note on
trails
So me and trails.
Still an evolving relationship.
On my first evening trail run, I was jogging along having a fabulous time
when at mile 4 (out of 5), I caught my foot on a root and went sprawling. Prior to hitting the ground, I felt
something bad happen where my left
hamstring connected to my left glute.
Bad enough that I cried out as I went down. Well – unless something is broken, when you
go down, the only thing to do is to get back up and run. On all previous falls (I’ve had a few on
trails by now), I’ve been able to run out any residual soreness pretty
quickly. Although the intensity of the
pain went away and I could finish my run, it was clear by the end of the run
that something had been pulled. This was verified when I went to bed that
night and just could not, for the life of me, find a position that was
comfortable for my hip.
The good news is, the pull didn’t impact me at all on my run
the next day – or really any subsequent runs.
The bad news is that it pretty much bothered me almost all of the time
when I WASN’T running – most specifically when I was sitting. Which really just felt like I had a constant
awful toothache in my ass. Driving was excruciating. I was nervous the following week to get back
out on the trail and do it again – but that second run went fine (if VERY slow
because I was being so cautious), and in fact everything felt better after
hopping over roots for 5 miles.
Gradually over the last couple of weeks the injury has
improved, just in time for my trail marathon tomorrow. I had chosen to do that as a training run,
but now am really just keeping my fingers crossed that I don’t fall and hurt
myself before my true running love – my road ultra in October.
So… what’s next?
So this journey is all about pushing limits. I finished my 100 miler which was a huge goal
for me, and I finished it strong. After
the initial glow, there is always that post race depression/quandary – OK – so
I did this. What’s next?
I’ve seen someone on Trail and Ultra Running post about
continuing to push limits, waiting to be transformed or pushed to the edge -
and each time they hit a new goal they found 1) they could do it, and 2) it
didn’t transform them in the way they had envisioned. In some ways the post race
depression/adjustment is like that. You
work so long and so hard toward a specific goal – it becomes this great big
life changing event in your head. At
least, the new goals and the Epic goals do… (first marathon, first triathlon,
first half ironman, first full IM, first 50 miler, first 100). Each of these was huge for me in terms of working
toward something that felt really big. The
problem with completing something big is, if you want a new stretch goal, it
has to be… bigger.
New Goals – BIG mileage,
multi-days?
Early on in the calendar year, I had hoped to get in 2000
miles of running this year. I hit that
mark just before the end of August. It
became apparent that 3000 was within the realm of possibility. I started re-thinking my training.
For pretty much the entire year, I’ve been running 5 days a
week. This was all based on the original
training plan I had used for my first 50 miler and then the one I used for my
100 – both plans called for runs Tues, Wed and Thurs, with back to back long
runs on Saturday and Sunday, taking Monday and Friday off. My normal schedule had been to throw in an
evening bike ride on my trainer on Tuesday nights (making that the only “double” workout day), and to swim on Friday mornings,
so that only Monday was a true “rest” day where I wasn’t doing anything. When 3000 became a possibility, I started
thinking about ways to get in a little bit more mileage – like swapping out my
Tuesday evening bike and my Saturday swims for a run. This very easily added 10-15 miles per
week. And for the first couple of
Tuesdays, I used that to get in a short trail run.
So – here I am, 3 ½ months left in the year, hopefully about
to pull off an 85 mile week. It has come
as an astounding discovery to me that I can add on 2 more runs per week and
that by doing so, I actually feel stronger.
In the last couple of days, my pace for my morning 10 miler has inched
back closer from my 11 minute miles just post 100 to 10 minute miles for many
of my training runs. And these are easy
runs – running at the pace my body wants to run – not pushing it all. This is speaking to me of the benefit of the
low heart rate training (i.e., almost all of my training is in zone 2). Also, I’m throwing in almost a weekly tempo
run where I run 3 miles (out of a 5 mile workout) at a pretty aggressive speed
for me. I’ve been really happy with what
I’ve been able to achieve with those.
This week’s speed run was actually new territory in that I used my
mid-week evening run (where I had already run 10 miles in the morning) as a speed
workout. Both that evening run as well
as the 10 miles I threw in the next morning were great. I’m generally also aiming to get in at least
1 aggressive hill workout per week.
In terms of other races on the horizon, I’m aiming for a 24
hour in November, possibly a return to Beast of Burden 100 for the winter
version in January, and then hopefully take a stab at my first multi-day at 3
Days at the Fair in the spring.
I’m going to have to taper soon because I really do want to
go into CanLakes rested. I know I have
the base… so now I just have to get into
the race without hurting myself.
Tapering, though, that’s going to be routh.
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