Rest - Recovery - Rehabilitation
I've focused mainly on the first R this week as aside from my being beat up from The Quad, I also haven't been feeling too well in general. I'm not sure if it is some sort of bug or just general fatigue from being so run down lately. A good night's sleep (for a change) helped last night and I stayed home from work to get some extra rest. I have nothing planned for this weekend so some more good Z's should go along with those R's. I am still mandating NO RUNNING for myself for another entire week (if I can stand it).
I haven't done one lick of exercise since the race and my body is starting to feel recovered. This is the hard part where I would normally go out and start running because things always "feel" recovered long before they are. I am thinking of getting my mountain bike professionally tuned up so I can do some cross-training this winter. Luckily, REI doesn't do any bike work on weekends, but I can drop it off. That will assure I don't try another "hey its not running so I can push myself hard" bike workout. I may allow myself a little exercise this weekend to help with the recovery phase. It will either be some walking or very easy spinning at the gym. I will also be doing some stretching, foam-roller and icing anything that feels even slight tight.
Next week, I plan to start a more consistent walking routine and doing at least one yoga workout. I will also continue vigorous rehab efforts. The walking is actually something I am vowing to add more of into my training. I have been following Paul Dewitt's blog and he has some great training ideas. He also integrates quite a bit of walking into his routine and I figure if an elite like him walks in training then a mid-packer like myself sure should. Besides, with my one confirmed race next year being the Coyote Two Moons 100-Miler that has over 28,000ft of climbing (yes you read that right), I had better plan to do lots of walking in preparation. I will be planning my initial race schedule and training goals for next year this weekend. I will post about it later. However, there is this little thing called The Western States 100 Lottery tomorrow morning that could put a wrench into otherwise more certain plans. In the very likely event that I don't get in, I was originally thinking of going for some time goals early next season. However, with the 2 Moons race already on the schedule, I think that I will make the theme something more along the lines of picking some very difficult events.
That's about all for now.
If your interested the results and pictures of The Quad Dipsea are online and available for viewing.
Good luck to everyone in the lottery!
3 comments:
Howdy Steve,
I'm happy to hear you've been resting and recovering. I've missed your smiling face lately. :-) You didn't look so good when I last saw you coming down the stairs at the Quad, so I'm thrilled to hear you're on your way back to happiness, man!
If it helps you to hear it, I too integrate a lot of walking into my own training. Sometimes I'll walk as a recovery the day after something big, just to keep the juices flowing and everything healing without adding more impact. Other times I'll do a long walk in place of a run, specifically to train my ability to speed-walk up steep hills and also for later in an ultra when running has become too tough.
Walking's hard, because it's slow, man! :-p But hey, it sure comes in handy...
Hope you're continuing to succeed at not running too much for awhile,
- Fred (fredx@pobox.com)
Thanks Fred. When you passed me on the stairs I had actually just almost slipped for the third time, but yeah, The Quad definitely left me in a lot of pain. I have done very little running since then some of it by design and some mandated by schedule and health.
I generally walk for recovery, but I haven't been as successful in integrating walking as part of training. I have been doing some fast treadmill walking at incline and it is tough. Trying to maintain close to a 4mph pace with 12%+ incline works me almost as hard as running!
I am definitely rested and hopefully recovered from everything. Now I just need to get my training back in order for the new year. See you out there on the trails soon!
Yeah, I totally groove on power-walks up way-steep inclines. That's when all the pounding stops, I can look around a little, eat & drink, and still keep a good workout going. I'm always looking forward to a good uphill, the steeper the better. :-)
BTW, I've learned a lot from trying to hold with you on downhills!
Looking forward to sharing the trails with you again,
- Fred
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