Last Month: Dec.7-Jan. 3, Recovery

It is all too easy to talk about the active training part of the year. As my mileage builds toward a particular event, I find myself blogging more out sheer excitement. One essential part of training isn't often discussed on this blog, in part because it's not my favorite: recovery. This year, it was especially true. Nineteen days of measurable rainfall shortened the daylight hours to more of a twilight. Couple that with Matt being stressed and working a bunch of overtime and seasonal depression hit us hard. Ugh.

Instead of immediately showing you my training plan for Boston, I want to share a little bit about the recovery month following The North Face 50K. Although every run after September was technically my off season, recovering from an event, especially anything longer than a marathon, takes a lot of patience. Sometimes I don't have enough patience, but this time the nineteen days of measurable rainfall made it easier.... until the end.

(The North Face 50K was Dec. 6)

Week 1: Dec. 7-13
22 miles,  43 kitties.
I took two full days off and then ran as much as I wanted. The fun thing about recovering from trail races is that all the sore spots were different. My biggest issue was sore obliques from all that downhill running in the mud. We got seven days of nonstop rain that week and I didn't have trouble just hanging out on the couch with my tea and knitting.

My sister's Christmas present.

Week 2: Dec. 14-20
40.75 miles, 53 kitties.

I felt recovered enough to resume moderate mileage and a limited amount of core workouts. More rain fell, but I had one glorious ten mile run in the sunshine on Friday that seemed to turn my seasonal depression around.

I even had enough motivation and dry weather to give the coop some Christmas cheer.

Matt's office holiday party was fun too. We won the ugly sweater contest!

Week 3: Dec. 21-27
53.5 miles, 2 kitties.
I have to admit that most of the mileage this week was in avoidance of a certain holiday that begets obligation of togetherness and to be honest, I had a pretty tough time. Matt and I stayed home for his weekend and got in four trail local trail runs and ate out a lot to make it feel like a vacation.

9.25 miles in our favorite Redwoods park. The creek was high and streams that never exist were in full force. Splashing through the rivers and hugging big trees was fun.

Mind the poison oak vines there, honey!

 10.5 mi to the Punta Gorda Lighthouse

Punta Gorda lighthouse run on one of those clear days.

12 miles of Headwaters with Rachel and Tanya: The frosty morning was gorgeous. Fog clung to the Elk River and as it broke up with the sunshine, gorgeous rays of sunshine filtered through. About halfway into the run, and as far away from the car as we can get, Tanya fell and hurt her ankle. We debated about calling for 911 when she was on the verge of puking and blacking out, but eventually the shock wore off and we determined it was probably just a sprain. She could put weight on it, so wrapped it up with my buff and we took the remaining six miles at a slow walk/hobble.

Morning frosty run with Tanya and Rachel.

That afternoon, I got in a minor car accident, my first. Dude pulled a U-turn in the middle of the road and I didn't have enough time to stop. Other than the fact that I was still shaking for hours afterward, I walked away uninjured. The other driver was uninjured and while his car was still drivable but sustained enough damage to be totaled.

Then there’s Focus. I’ve always said the old girl’s a warrior. She’s survived the Haul Road, Alaska Highway, frost heaves galore, tons of rugged mountain roads, and still keeps on truckin’. The area circled above is her only damage (the damage on the bottom is because Matt likes to pull too close to those cement things in parking lots).

Week 4: Dec. 28-Jan. 3 
29.45 miles, 9 kitties.
I spent the first half of the week with an ice pack strapped to my neck. Apparently not all was well after all. I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with whiplash. They gave me some Vallium and high doses of Ibuprofen. Since I had planned a January 1st half marathon, the doctor said I should take time off until then and run the race, but have a low threshold for pain and drop out if I needed it. I agreed that there was no point in pushing through pain on a race that was meant to be social. I ended the year with 2265 miles, my first time over 2,000.

Before the start

Shasta Lake looks a little healthier.

The morning of the race, I took no medication and went at a slow pace and just enjoyed the day. The only time my back and neck felt tight was on the uphills so I walked almost all of them. The girls' weekend finished off with a hike in the Trinity Alps. Even though the accident set my recovery back a little bit, I am thankful nothing worse came of it. This trip was so fun!! I hope to recap it next week.

This week began the first official training week for Boston. I had to modify a couple of workouts for the residual soreness in my back, but I'm definitely through the worst of it.