Wow!! Time flies when you’re busy and too tired from being busy to sit down and write something funny and witty. I just did the sitting down part and skipped the funny and witty.
This past Saturday, we had our recovery run. It’s imperative to have recovery weeks from all the miles we’re running to give your body a chance to, well, recover.
Why are recovery weeks important?
Because running, and any intense exercise, causes those beautiful little muscle fibers to tear and break down, so we need to step back the mileage and/or intensity in order for those beautiful little muscle fibers to repair themselves and in the process, to even get stronger.
The key to recovery is rest!!
Resting doesn’t mean plopping yourself on the couch with some potato chips and ice cream and eating them to your little heart’s delight while watching tv all day long as tempting as that may be. No sirree! Resting simply means taking it easy and cutting back on the quantity and/or intensity of your runs. So if you normally run at a 7-minute pace, maybe run at a 9- or 10-minute pace. Once I get to that 7:00 pace, I’ll be so overjoyed to run a “slow” 9:00 or 10:00 pace. 🙂
Constantly having high mileage with high intensity can lead to overtraining. Overtraining simply means not giving your body enough time to rest and recover.
Overtraining can cause many things to happen to you, such as, feeling abnormally tired, and not quite feeling your usual energetic happy running self. Overtraining can also cause you to get sick often. Colds just looooove runners!! Especially tired, overtrained runners!!
How to prevent overtraining?
Give your body the rest it deserves and take it easy now and then. Be sure to sleep and eat well. Drink plenty of water and for gawds sake, don’t rub your eyes, touch your mouth, and/or pick your nose after shaking hands with someone, touching elevator buttons, or using someone else’s computer, or phone. (These are just a few things harboring cooties, ahem, I mean germs).
I was certainly looking forward to this recovery run after last week’s disappointing 12 miler. Disappointing in the sense I didn’t make it 12 miles, but I’m over it now since this coming Saturday I’ll be heading out for another 12 miles and hopefully have a great run this time around.
Back to this past Saturday though, we had 5 miles to get through.
“Rest is mucho importante!”
Met up with my friend Mike for a quick pre-run snapshot.
It was time for some runners to take off on their 5 mile recovery run. Funny how at one point 5 miles was a long run, and now it’s a short recovery run.
The weather was absolutely perfect too! It was cool and overcast. The sun never came out. I certainly hope the weather decides to repeat itself this Saturday as well.
Waiting for another running club to pass.
The weekend before last, Glenn, one of the mentors for my pace group ran the Long Beach Marathon. He’s run somewhere in the ballpark of 12,000 marathons and so during our run I asked him how Long Beach was.
Me: Hey Glenn, how was Long Beach?
Glenn: Hot
Me: Really? Ugh.
Glenn: Yeah, but you know what I thought about during the race?
Me: What?
Glenn: I thought of you.
Me: Because I’m crying.
Glenn: No, because you’re always smiling, and that helped.
Aww, that’s so sweet of Glenn. Okay, I’ll admit he’s sorta right. I do tend to smile during the runs.
Glenn (ready for marathon 12,001)
I wonder if he thought of this smile.
“I’m. So. Happy. To. Be. Running.”
After the run, my sister and I met up with Mike again for coffee. This time though, we were going to hit up a different coffee shop nearby. The only problem was, we didn’t know exactly where it was.
Mike did what any technologically savvy person would do and got on his phone to look for directions.
HA!! I bet you thought I was taking a photo of Mike’s phone, but I was really looking at that water fountain.
Okay here’s a photo of something totally unrelated to the run:
Hey buddy, keep your eyes on the road please!!
The 5 miles went well even though the first 2.8 miles were up a gradual incline. Overall I felt great! Of course, I better feel great after only 5 miles. Actually, I finished with 5.41 miles in 1:02:40. That is, 5.41 recovery miles. 🙂
