In which we discover that the aftermath is always painful..

Hey everyone! Thanks SO MUCH for all the super nice comments on my last post, as well as Eric's. And thanks too for all the facebook and twitter love (we can be found on the Twitters Here For Sara and Here For Eric by the way) Seriously, you guys are the best!

So.... How have I been feeling in the 72 or so hours post marathon?

Well. I went from horrible pain and suffering (seriously- that cold weather did a number on me) to moderate pain and agony, to feeling (on day 3) like I had just completed a long run of 20 miles or so.

UGH. I must say that whatever that freezing cold rain did to my legs was less than ideal.

I've been kicking my own ass trying to recover though. Lots of moving around (it is unavoidable in my line of work) disgustingly painful foam rolling, and today I did 40 minutes on the oldest stationary bike known to man. It felt fine, but was interesting in only the way that old school exercise can be!

Recovery at it's finest.
You can't see it, but there is a legit bottle of bourbon helping as well...

So what did I do right during this last training cycle?

I followed my plan basically to a T. I did my runs as prescribed, did not slack off on my workouts and really made it thru in fine style (fine style should never be included in a sentence that involves ME...) I took my rest days when I was supposed to, I did not add miles where they did not belong, I took pretty good care of myself and I foam rolled like an effing BOSS. I also spent a lot of time practicing my running nutrition and feel that I might have finally found a solution (I'll write more on this another day!)

What did I do wrong? I didn't put as much enthusiasm into my core work as I could have. I think core is boring and stupid even though I know it is very beneficial and, sadly, not stupid in the least, *sigh* I prefer to lie on the floor of my workout room thinking about thinking about my core workout for about an hour before I do it with just enough effort to barely squeak by. I am lazy as shit. Also, my coach wished for me to spend quite a bit of time utilizing visualization techniques, positive thinking mantras and such. I must admit that I slacked off on this almost 100% (with the exception of the Derry race- when I made sure that I could, in fact get to the mental place I needed to be in.) There is a legit reason that I blew this off (Kelsey, stop yelling... I knew I'd have to confess to this eventually but wanted to make sure that I didn't freak out/bomb/loose my nerve first!) Bottom line, I'm already really good at that shit. Fearless pro equestrian right here- ice water runs thru my veins, I win my flipping classes in the warm up I'm so bad ass and I'm annoyingly cool under pressure (in the equestrian show ring, that is...). *listen to me talk smack!! haha* I figured if I could just dial into that shit while running I'd be golden. And I can. Done and done. I've had years and years of practice on this, not to mention that my overactive ADHD little brain can't handle much in the way of deep thinking/quiet meditation... More on this later though, as I DID (despite what I'm saying now) spend some time on this and I came to some interesting conclusions (a blog for another day!)

What do I plan to do to improve for next time? Hmmm.

I need to man up on the core work. Blah. Hate.

My sister is going to force me to do yoga. Stupid. Stupid.

I might need more speed work but the track is snowed in... Dumb!

Oh and hills. Gotta get back on that spectacular bandwagon of misery.

I am on the right.

So yeah, that's the plan for now. I'm really excited to get the Boston training underway although I haven't decided yet if I'm shooting for a PR or a good time at that race. Clearly, a PR would be a damn good time so that is clearly the answer to that question... One of these days I plan to run another Marathon MDI style just for the fun of it, but until I bust out that 3:33:33 I'm going to put that nonsense on hold...