Well, hello there.

This recovery period has been a little strange.  The day after running the marathon, I woke up feeling a little more sore, especially in my calves and quads, but I got up and did my usual Sunday activities, including going to church and just spending time together as a family - so nothing too strenuous.

On Monday, the kids did not have school of course, but my daughter (who had been fighting a head cold for a couple of days) was complaining of severe head and ear pain.  It now appears that she had a pretty bad ear infection and her ear drum may have even ruptured, and she has been one miserable little girl.  Chris was home all day, so I was able to go to the park and get in a little walking - maybe about 2 miles - before spending the rest of the day running errands, including grocery shopping and then back home to take care of Sophie.  I actually think it's a good thing that the gym was closed due to the holiday because I may have been tempted to take my usual Monday night spin class, and I don't think my legs would have been ready.

Today I had another low-key day.  Sophia woke up still feeling terrible, so I kept her home from school.  After getting the other kids up and off to school, I was able to get in a 3+ mile walk before coming home to take care of her.  Chris also left this morning to go to work-related training in Boise and he will be gone until Friday evening.  I had been looking forward to getting to spend a few days completely alone (at least from 8am-4pm!), but just like that today is gone and I don't feel like I got a whole lot accomplished.  Well, I did take a nap for about an hour while Sophie was also sleeping.  I haven't napped in a long time!

I always forget about the recovery period after the marathon.  I was planning to get right back to my normal workout routine, but it's probably good that I've been easing back into things.  The only real soreness I feel today is in my quads and hamstrings, and it's more of a tightness.  Looking back over the events of last week, I actually feel very blessed.  I didn't mention it on this blog (for fear that acknowledging it would jinx me), but the weekend before the marathon, my oldest son came home from a boy scout camping trip with a roaring virus.  He had a fever, cough, headache, body aches - the whole nine yards.  After getting him all the things he needed, I got busy making a good supply of fresh fruit/vegetable juice, taking my vitamins, drinking TONS of water, and pretty much spraying everything in the house with Lysol every 5 minutes.  A few days after he was at his worst, I woke up with a sore throat and runny nose, but I tried not to focus on it and just ate as much healthy food as I could and kept with my low intensity workouts and lots of sleep.  And apparently it worked because my sore throat and runny nose went away without getting any worse and as we all know, I made it through the marathon just fine.

Something else that all of the women runners have to consider is our monthly cycle.  I have heard of some women who will not run (or even race) if it's their "time of the month".  I had calculated well in advance where I would be on race day just so I could be prepared, and it turned out to be perfect timing because it wasn't something I would have to worry about until about 4 or 5 days after the race.  I put it completely out of my mind...until I woke up the morning after the race and well, wouldn't you know it.  Once again, I'm grateful for good timing and small blessings.  I think the fact that I am most likely slightly anemic right now has slowed my recovery a little bit, at least as far as getting back to my normal energy level.

I am feeling at the end of my lazy-allotment, ready to get back to work.  I'm thinking that a run might be just the thing I need, so my goal is to get out on the road tomorrow morning.  I am definitely planning on returning to the gym on Thursday for my favorite morning spin class and after that, trying the Muscle Fusion X class for the second time.