Marathon Recovery Mode - Continued

On Tuesday I wrote about how recovery was going and things seem to be progressing nicely.

I came back to work yesterday, which actually was welcomed.  The calf was still letting me know it was unhappy, and then at some point in the day, my big toe (left foot) became increasingly painful.  Not the toe itself, but the toenail.

It had not (and still hasn't) changed color at all and today its a bit better, not as sensitive to the touch, so I am  hoping that after all these years of running, that now I am about to lose a toenail!?  I am hoping that is not the case, but will keep you posted ;o)

After work, I headed to the gym and since the calf was still ouchy, I had planned on just walking the 3 miles, but I just couldn't.

I ended up doing the 3 miles, but I allowed myself to run a song, walk a song...there was still just a tinge of tightness/soreness in the quads, but nothing I couldnt handle, and by the end they actually felt pretty darn good.

I hit the weights up afterwards for a hard hitting session on chest and shoulders and damn am I feeling it today!

They say 2 of the most important things for marathon recovery is 1) eat good for you food and 2) sleep/rest as much as possible ...  no problem.  For whatever reason, yesterday when I made it home from the gym it was all I could do to keep my eyes open.  I ended up falling asleep on the couch sometime after 9pm, woke up about an hour later, crawled in to bed and this morning still felt like I could sleep even more.

For some folks, the energy zap (and the run-ger) from all the excitement and the marathon itself will not manifest itself until days later.  I didn't sleep well at all Sunday night and even on Monday and Tuesday I had a hard time going to bed at 10:30 which normally would never happen!  After 2 days of being back in the gym, I guess it is all finally catching up to me and my body is letting me know about it.

Today is a full on rest day, and while I would love to go and do another short run, I will abide by the 'rules' and rest.  Maybe a walk around my 'hood.  :O)

As far as my eating, its been pretty exemplary (sp?). 

I did eat an entire medium pizza on Sunday (and half a pint of strawberry Blue Bell ice cream), (not all at once though!), but other than that my diet has consisted of: tons of veggies (I ate 2 lbs of roasted brussel sprouts on Monday!!!), eggs, bananas, whole grain bread and chicken.  And coffee.  Lots of coffee.  I do not know where this coffee craze came from all of a sudden! (started a few months back)

I still plan to eat Whataburger (fries!!), I just can't seem to bring myself to do it.  I keep thinking I want to save it for some other day/evening, but I wonder if I do that, will I just keep making 'excuses'?

Really the only craving I have had consistently is for ice cream, although today I can't seem to stop thinking about a big bag of potato chips!  (figure its my body wanting the salt).

So for now, I will just rest as my body tells me too and continue to fuel it with what it needs and not what it wants.  :O)

What is the most outrageous post marathon meal you have eaten?  Do you tend to just go hog-wild for days or even weeks afterwards?  When do you usually do your first post-marathon run?

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Edited to include link to a post I wrote just a while back...until those individuals at Rowan Companies can keep their nosy eyes away, I will continue to post this link; and actually post an email that I sent to SSeiden... and SRodr... as well.  I can assure you they wouldn't want that.