The more I reflect on my marathon the less I feel triumphant and the more I feel grateful. I feel so grateful to now have such a positive experience in the marathon. I think more than any other distance I've run, the emotional component of the marathon is very real and big. Mostly because there's so much effort and sometimes sacrifice that goes into the training, when it doesn't pan out the way we hope often times it's our feelings that hurt more than our bodies. I'm grateful that I walked away feeling satisfied; that the things I could control and the things I could not control all converged in the way I had hoped to make for a fantastic race. This past week has been all about recovery here's what I've been up to:

Recovery: I don't have any other races on the schedule until the fall, but I wanted to make sure I was doing everything I could to aid and speed recovery from the marathon. Here are a few things I did (I did the same thing after Eastern States and it worked really well for me.)

Walk to the Car: I walked a quarter mile from the finish line to where my husband parked the car. He offered to pull it closer and pick me up. But I knew I needed to move.
Drink Recovery Drink: In the car I had my Vega Recovery Accelerator waiting and I drank that immediately. I thought recovery drinks were a fad and not necessary until I used Vega after Eastern States and felt remarkably different than after previous long runs.
Eat: I was not hungry, but I ate a Cliff Bar and drank some orange juice.
Hydrate: I had water and Nuun waiting in the car and immediately started to rehydrate on our drive back to the hotel.
Ice Bath: I walked around our floor looking for ice (even though my husband offered to get it). Then I found out it was down a flight of stairs and took him up on the offer. I took a 10 minute ice bath.
Compression: The rest of the day I wore my CW-X compression tights and ProCompression socks. I wore them to bed as well.
Margaritas: Two very large margaritas are key to a good recovery.

These things don't magically (except for the margaritas…they feel slightly magical) make you feel better, but I feel as if they make a difference in the way I have recovered previously so I'll continue to do them.

Training Update: Last week I took things slow. On Monday I was sore. Like walk-down-the-stairs-sideways sore. Mostly it was my quads--they took a pounding with all that downhill. The soreness had subsided on Tuesday and by Wednesday I was ready to run and work out some of that lactic acid. Here's what last week looked like:

Monday: Off. Sore. Avoid stairs.

Tuesday: Short little walk. 20 minutes.

Wednesday: 4 miles at Rochester Runners Track workout. Two miles in the woods. Two miles on road. 10x strides. Super slow and easy.

Thursday: 75 minute barre class. Warmed up my body, worked core and arms--which was a great way to balance the leg soreness. Stretched and worked lower body and walked out feeling much better. In barre we do a lot of hip opening moves and a lot of lateral movement which is the perfect anecdote to running for 3 and half hours.