T-minus 3 weeks: Recovery and reset

Plus, celebrating 1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ miles for the year! 🎉

I’m backkkk — for another three weeks. Given the immense personal utility of my blogs on race weekend, I have decided to capture my post-race recovery/pre-race prep for future me. Never before have I raced so soon after a marathon, but my upcoming half marathon was too fun to turn down. Plus, I will learn a lot more about how my body recovers and responds to new and different training stimuli with an authentic challenge ahead.

But before we get too technical, let me give you a rundown of what’s below: This week I share my recovery timeline since last Sunday’s big effort, plus a preview of the race ahead. As always, I’ll end with a few extra tidbits from the week. Without further ado…

📋 Total miles: 15.6

• Monday: Off 

• Tuesday: Off

• Wednesday: Off

• Thursday: Off

• Friday: Off 

• Saturday: 5.1 miles (easy, recovery)

• Sunday: 10.5 miles (easy)

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🦵 Getting back on my feet

They say recovery is rarely linear, and I am here to confirm.

Last Sunday after the race my recovery started with a 2-mile walk from the finish line to the condo where I was staying. As much as I wasn’t pleased in the moment, that trek likely did my legs a world of good in combating stiffness and soreness. Later that day, I walked around Central Park with my family, scrambled up a rock wall with my niece, and generally felt strong.

Monday morning required that I do chores before heading to Brooklyn. I woke up nervous that every step would be a slog, but it wasn’t. In fact, I felt like I could walk normally. I actually felt a bit cocky about the whole thing — perhaps all of the walking I’d done during the race had saved me.

They say to be wary of “second day soreness”, or DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), and on Tuesday I felt like I got hit by a bus. Woof. I think some subconscious part of your brain buries the memory of marathon soreness lest you’d never sign up again. I hobbled through my day cursing the cheery version of yesterday-me who thought I had skated through my recovery.

So what actually hurt? Mostly my quads. I’m not a great downhill runner, and there are some steep descents in the back half of the race where I shredded those muscles. My hips and glutes were also sore, but satisfyingly so. Surprisingly, my calves and hamstrings felt less wrecked than after a typical PT session. The other pain I was dealing with were full blisters under both big toenails (more on that below).

Wednesday saw huge improvements from Tuesday and on Thursday I was tempted to run. I ultimately chose not to because I was flying that night from NYC and didn’t want to have to shower before getting on the plane (I’m weird about showering, I know…). I flew out late Thursday night and ended up getting stuck on the tarmac for about an hour before takeoff, which meant that I more-or-less pulled an all-nighter. The lack of sleep is always an issue with recovery, but it turned out to be the less acute of two problems.

Do you know how feet swell on planes? It’s uncomfortable. Now imagine that you have massive liquid bubbles already under both toenails. The pressure was almost unbearable. I considered taking a pen from my bag and trying to drill a hole through the top of my nail to relieve it. In the end I decided that that was both unsanitary and disgusting, so I refrained. The consideration of such desperate measures should tell you something about how awful it was, though.

Ragged from my flight, I decided to take one more day off Friday and get a deep tissue massage. I’ve been working with the same massage therapist for 5+ years, and in moments where there’s nuance between good pain and unhelpful pain in a massage, that’s useful. I came out feeling refreshed.

I also took matters into my own hands on the toenail front. I considered including photos to better illustrate the procedure I undertook, but I determined that it ran the risk of losing all my subscribers (or potentially picking up a new income stream 😉). In short, I popped the blister under the nail from the top and pushed down to relieve the pressure. It was so satisfying, and I’ll leave it there.

Yesterday was my first run back, and I felt springy and fresh. Time is a healer.

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🔮 Looking ahead   

Looking forward to returning to Sacramento for the CIM after a racing in 2017.

In three weeks I will compete in a relay at the California International Marathon (CIM) in Sacramento. The CIM is an important marathon, particularly for people looking to run fast. The course is point-to-point, net downhill, and this year it’s the last big attempt to qualify for the Olympic Trials. All the likely Olympians have already secured their place, but making it to the Trials is a huge accomplishment in its own right. Men need to run 2:18 and women need to run 2:37, and the CIM will have large pace groups gunning for these times. It’s emotional for me to watch.

This photo, which appeared in the NYT in 2020 before the last Olympic Trials, is one of my favorites ever (1) because it captures the joy that is qualifying for the Olympic Trials at the CIM and (2) because the woman on the left is my friend, Ann Mazur. (📸 credit: Nicole Bush)

It’s uncommon for a marathon to have a relay as a part of it, which makes the CIM special. The relay used to be composed of 4-person teams, but they’ve lowered it to 2. I am running with Lennie, who is an Olympian in the 3000m steeplechase, but has limited exposure to road distance races. I’m thrilled that she will use this opportunity to preview what it’s like to run with a pack of elite women on the road. I, on the other hand, am here for a good time (definitely figuratively, hopefully literally).

Lennie, center and with the medal, has taken on comparatively more of the performance burden for years…

Over the next three weeks, I have three goals:

1. Get healthy

2. Get sharp

3. Learn about how my body handles training stress

I’m still dealing with crud in my chest, high HR and low HRV, and other telltale signs that my system is working harder than it needs to. I am going to focus all month on eating well, getting enough sleep, and taking easy days easy. As for getting sharp, I am looking to do speed sessions that allow me to feel strong, but not overloaded. Lastly, I am going to be good about documenting how I feel in this period (hi 👋) — there are so many variables to play with.

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🧳 Odds n’ ends

Celebrating: 1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ miles for the year! I made this goal last year and fell short after Long COVID. I was resolved to try again this year – and I made it. Woohoo!

Saving on: The Lever. I received a Black Friday promo email for the Lever that caught my attention. I knew the deal was for new purchases, but as a renter I theoretically could return my current model at any time and cash in on the deal. Shipping my Lever back only to receive a new one felt wasteful, so I reached out via their customer service chat to say that I would purchase the Lever outright if they’d honor the deal and they said yes. A past version of me would have never thought to ask, but the startup founder in me realizes that guaranteed revenue is way cuter than churnable subscriptions.

In the market for: A GPS watch. My Apple Watch failed me during the NYC Marathon. I asked very little of it: it was on theater mode (face is dark), WIFI and cell were off, and the only time I looked at it was when it buzzed to say it had 10% left. I wore it to capture my heart rate and step data — and apparently that’s too much. I don’t know if I want a Garmin or a Coros. I’m currently reviewing specs and compatibility, then waiting for a sale. Open to endorsements.

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I’m looking forward to a week of actual running ahead. There’s an important conference in SF this week (APEC) and I am excited to get a sense of the impact on the city while exploring on foot. I suspect I’ll see more security on my runs than ever before.

See you next Sunday!