5/7 - 5/12/2007 Recovery Week

If I wasn't entirely prepared for the pain that I felt in the last 5 miles of the race I wasn't ready at all for the amount of pain that I was experiencing in this past week. Every time I stood up my quads were screaming. Walking down a flight of stairs was near impossible the first couple of days, and forget about walking down a hill. My knees wanted to unhinge with about every third or fourth step. Good times...good times.

The day after the race, May 7th, I went out for a recovery walk. I figured walking would be better than doing nothing. My legs couldn't possibly hurt any worse. I walked the Center Field 1 1/4 mile path twice very slowly. The 2.5 miles took about 45 minutes to complete. I felt marginally better than when I started, but at this point just getting in and out of the car is difficult.

After a rest day I decided to get out on the bike Wednesday. I really wanted to work the knots out of my muscles, but the thought of the pounding of running wasn't really all that appealing just yet. It also gave me the opportunity to get my bike out on the Tri for Joe course. I'm really looking forward to this race this year. I'd love to get out there and just crush last year's time. Part of doing that will be in preparation.

Dist: 18 mi.
Avg: 16.49 mph
Max: 25.2 mph
Time: 01:05:29

On Thursday it was time to get back into the gym. I had taken some time off from strength training right before the Flying Pig, so it had been over 3 weeks since I'd hit the weights. The lower half of my body was still quite sore, but I pushed through the various lunges and step-ups that really worked the quads and hamstrings.

5 minute Dynamic Warm-Up:
(All done Across Basketball Court and back)

• Lunge Twists
• Side Lunges
• Walking Knee Grabs
• Toe Touches
• Butt Kicks

Workout:

• Medicine Ball Toe Touches - 8 lb ball 2 sets x 15
• Medicine Ball Twists - 8 lb ball 2 sets x 15
• Supermans - 2 sets x 15
• Walking Lunges - Width of Court with 15 lbs
• Ball Leg Curls - 2 sets x 15
• Dumbbell Step-Ups - 15 lbs 2 sets x 15
• Hammer Strength Seated Chest Press 45 lbs 2 sets x 15
• Hammer Strength Seated Row 45 lbs 2 sets x 15
• Hammer Strength Lat Pull Downs 35 lbs 2 sets x 15
• Dumbbell Bicep Curls (seated) - 20 lbs 2 sets x 15
• Bench Dips - 2 x 15
• 4 way Shoulder - 5 lbs 1 x 20
• Fly
• Front Shoulder Raise
• Lat. Shoulder Raise
• External Rotation

One more rest day on Friday followed up by a short recovery run on Saturday. All the soreness that was fading from my quads and the front of my body came back with a vengeance in my hamstrings and butt on Friday and Saturday. I set on Saturday to test the running legs for the first time since the marathon. It really wasn't such a pleasant run at all. I ran the 2.3 miles in 22:16 struggling to keep a pace at all. Hopefully I'll start to get my legs back over the next few days, so that I can get into full swing of duathlon training.