Recovery 201

Since the half marathon last week I've been on two short runs, and then a 5.5 mile run this morning. On Monday (one day post race) I didn't run because I was in enough pain just trying to walk. I spent a lot of time stretching, probably 90 minutes broken up throughout the day. If you feel like you can, you're supposed to run a short run the day after the race, but I wasn't feeling up to it.

Tuesday AM I woke up bright and early and went on a nice 2 mile run. My left hip and foot were still bothering me a little, but I was able to complete the run. I took time to stretch my left hip flexor. Some really great stretches for your hips are:

• the warrior pose (basically a deep lunge), where your back foot is turned out perpendicular to the line of your body. you can modify warrior based on where you put your arms. for the deepest stretch, you can lift your arms straight up over your head, and while looking up sit into the lunge as much as possible. it really helps to take some deep breaths to get the most out of this stretch.

• pigeon pose where your front leg is bent at the knee and perpendicular to the body. you want your shin to be parallel with the front of the mat. if you're really tight, or not experienced in yoga, make sure you place a pillow, blanket or yoga block under your bumm to support you.

• down dog (no picture necessary), we all learned this one in gym class. to stretch the outside of your hip, you can modify down dog by lifting one leg at a time as high as possible without rounding your back.

• the butterfly stretch. trusted for so long because it works.

• another stretch that I like to use is a pilates move. face down on the mat, laterally rotate your legs out. then, lift opposite leg, opposite arms slowly, and do not crunch the lower back. you don't have to lift very high to feel the stretch, especially if you're SUPER sore from running a half marathon!

This morning I ran 5.5 in about 50 minutes. I felt great cardio wise, but was struggling a little bit with pain in my foot and hip AGAIN. Sometimes your body just needs more recovery time than you would like. Another reason things can start to hurt consistently is because of your shoes. It's really important you buy new running shoes fairly regularly, every 4 months or so if you're a serious runner (running more than 20 miles/week). SO, I guess it's time to start looking into new shoes. THAT will be a whole separate blog post!!

Starting on Monday, I have a revamped workout schedule! It's time to start working swimming into the mix on a regular basis, AND cycling at least twice. It will also be important as summer progresses, to start stacking my workouts (remember, stacking means doing two different cardio exercises in a row).  Lots of exciting new stuff to come as I switch my focus from running the half, to prepping for my sprint triathlon in July!!