UPDATE: Lehigh Valley Hospital Marathon results are posted HERE! I placed much higher than I thought in the overall, not bad…

This is my last post concerning the Lehigh Valley Hospital Marathon .. yesterdays post was kind of ‘out there’ since I was out of it when I wrote it like I normally am after a marathon ..

Overall it was a great race, well run for the most part, and anyone looking for a small marathon to run, this is the one for you. Its very bare bones and to the point (no expo, pasta party or hoopla at the start) .. which is good for someone like me, it keeps it to the point. Thanks to the race people for putting together a great race along a great course, I really think that is the best part, the course itself .. I suggest this marathon to anyone who likes a bare bones, no frills marathon… ’nuff said.

So I managed to get out for under 2 miles this morning just to get the legs stretched out and find out where the real pain points are. Both my quads, especially my left quad is really sore, and I can only think it was due to some of the downhill grade of the course. It really didn’t feel like I was running downhill much, but I guess I was because of the way my body feels, and the way that my splits were so off (causing me to run faster than I wanted to). It really feels like the aftermath of Steamtown even after getting it stretched out this morning.. which was my goal in getting out the day after… I’ve got 2 black toenails now, one which I have to perform surgery on today, its really painful and must be due to the new shoes… other than the small aches and pains, we’re ready to get back to training with a plan to do better, there is less than 5 weeks to go until the next one ..

I’ve realized that there are a few things that I need to work on in the next 5 weeks .. first is that I have to start eating better. I’ve allowed myself to get off of ‘healthy’ eating and need to get back to it. I ran this at a weight of around 190, which is around 3-5 pounds heavier than I ran in the spring and last fall. I know that by shaving off pounds, my times get better, so thats one thing we need to work on. The second thing is continuing to work on my pace especially during my long runs .. Lastly is the inclusion of more hill work since I know that Steamtown is a bit more challenging as far as hills are concerned. I’m worried more about the constant uphills more than the downhills (especially the late hills in the last few miles), but if I keep my pace during the downhills, i’ll be okay. Hopefully this plan will work for me next month ..

I was happy to hear that i’m not the only one that does multiple marathons per season .. people I spoke to yesterday do a bunch in the spring and fall like I do. I don’t necessarily agree with the people out there who say that an adequate marathon recovery time is needing 2-3 weeks to recover from the marathon. My opinion is that in doing that, you’re really losing something that you worked hard for .. think about it, you train for 16-18 weeks, run the marathon, then not do anything for 2-3 weeks? Most people lose the aerobic level that they built up by doing that, I mean, I know I lose it after a week or so of lighter running, and i’m in great shape, I couldn’t imagine if you didn’t train as hard as I did, what level you would fall to … regardless, I am one of many who disagree with that and my times show that it isn’t 100% necessary (do whats right for you). Note that I do think you need to take it ‘easier’ for a few days after the marathon to recover, but 2-3 weeks is crazy .. again, just my opinion…

Anyway, we’ll continue to slowly build my miles back up this week in prep for 3 more hard weeks before tapering for Steamtown … just when you think its over, it starts up again … 🙂

marathon 3 week recovery??