Recovery Week – Ouch!

Note to self when traveling more than 2 hours for a race – don't fly back the next day. Oh yeah since notes are being taken, look into those things called 'compression socks' (aka the long socks that you used to see only on elderly people but now starting to see on athletes during a race and after a race).

Sunday was a great day and I was really proud of my effort (and new PR). I walked for a bit after the race, stretched and iced, but the 7 hours of being on a flight between boarding, the flight itself and deplaning really slowed down my recovery. It probably had to do with sitting for such an extended period of time along with the altitude and pressurized cabin. I was still having issues on Tuesday and finally started to feel a bit better on Wednesday even after doing some light rides on the recumbent bike along with some stretching.

Marc took me on a quick loop that he created on his own which had lots of quick hills which will come in handy for interval training. I'll admit that I underestimated the steepness of a couple of these hills and I was huffing and puffing quite a bit. Consider me motivated to kick the crap out of this loop the next time I attempt this. It will come in handy as I start working on some hills for my next race.

While I felt better as the week progressed, I realized that my lower body was still responding at a slower clip on recovering so I enlisted the services of a good friend's massage therapist. That helped quite a bit and set me up for this morning's run. The therapist also recommended the compression socks as she works with a good amount of Ironman athletes, and Coach Lesley agreed. Coach also told me that there are compression socks for racing and compression socks for recovery. Who knew that this could be so complicated, but I guess I need to start doing some research. If anyone has any insights on compression socks, please let me know.

This morning's run was either going to be 6 or 8 miles depending on how I felt. It was an absolutely gorgeous morning with perfect weather. The mountains were in full view. Truly awesome and we were talking during the run that this is why Seattle can be so great because of mornings like this. The run I did around Queen Anne a couple of months ago was probably a tad more spectacular just because we had to climb quite a bit on that run to get the view, but today was pretty darned nice.

I spent the entire run with Tricia and Dana, which was nice. They told me about the race they just did in SF, and it was fun to hear about their adventures. It was supposed to be an easy run and we had good intentions, but it probably ended up being more on the moderate side for me, which was fine. It was an awesome day to be outside and when we hit the 6 mile mark at Pike Place Market, I knew I wasn't done [grin]. And the best part is that I felt like I got my legs back after the run.