Morning Run - 9km (first run after the race, nice and easy!)

dannewton just finished a 9.28km run, that lasted for 65 minutes.
This run helped dannewton burn 671.0 calories.

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Description from Strava:
And now after all that effort on Saturday, it was time to start the recovery... 34 miles was a significant distance for my little legs, and I don't want to leap back into normal training straight away. The recovery process actually began on the evening of Saturday, when I walked up to the shops for Donuts (as you do!).

The aim was really just to start the active recovery, as I was beginning to seize up. I felt comparatively ok after the walk, but when I headed for a early night my legs seemed to be almost throbbing... very sore indeed. This lead to a rather poor nights sleep as I couldn't get comfortable

In hindsight I should really have taken a paracetamol or too, it would have helped me rest

Sunday morning involved another walk to the shops with a friend, and after 20 minutes, my legs started to loosen off slightly. I took the rest of he day easy, but I made a point of tying to keep active and not sit on the sofa all day... I still needed movement for active recovery. I managed a few chores such as stripping the bed, and doing some ironing along with some pottering about, and I'm sure that helped.

Today I woke up, and my legs still felt a little tired, but nothing like they had felt yesterday, and I decided it would be worth heading out for a very slow recovery run...

It was just 9km up the bypass and back, and I made a point to run at a much slower pace than I would pick for an 'easy' run. I also took several walk breaks too, and as I ran I paid careful attention to how I was feeling, and how my legs were feeling.

Surprisingly I actually felt rather good. My feet were ok, my knees felt fine... at the beginning of the run my legs felt slightly wooden and awkward, but on the homeward stretch, even that feeling disappeared and some 'bounce' seem to come back. The only niggle was a slight tightness in my right calf which was probably a hold-over from my injury last summer

All in all though, I pleasantly surprised at how good I feeling after the race on Saturday. It is stark contrast to my first ever Marathon back in April 2023. In that race I ran 27 miles in 5 hours and 30 minutes, and it took me a week before I could even consider running, and a further 2 weeks before I could run more than 2 miles in one go.

This time around, I ran 34 miles in 6 hours (ac a faster time hence the marathon PB). So that was 7 miles further, for 40 minutes longer, and at a faster pace, and yet apparently I must have found it easy, because I'm already on the road to recovery. That can only be testament to the improvement in fitness and performance (and I maintain that is all due to the 80/20 principles and the zone 2 stuff I started last summer).

I do need to remember that I need to be kind to my body and not push too hard, so the rest of this week will just be short easy runs, while making sure there are no niggles or after effects. And then next week can hopefully begin a return to a more 'normal' training load.

For now, I'm going to enjoy the rest off the day off from work, and I think I'll write up the Race Report so that can be posted tomorrow...

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If you would like to check out this activity on strava you can see it here:
https://www.strava.com/activities/10839694818

About the Athlete: Living in the UK, I am an intermittent Runner, but always striving for more consistency. When I'm not training I can be found photographing insects or listening to really loud angry music (which is the best type of music obviously!)

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