So two Saturdays ago I ran the Mississippi Blues Marathon.  I asked a fellow runner there — who had run like 136 marathons or something absurd — what he recommended for the spring.  His first suggestion was the Asheville Marathon.  I haven’t run a marathon in North Carolina, so that sounded good to me.  Last Monday I registered and mapped out my training plan.   This first week was a recovery week, of course, with lots of rest and extra protein in my smoothies (I used the usual Vega All in One plus Wild Foods whey protein).  But I didn’t want to completely let myself go and become one with the couch because there’s another race around the corner.  I’ll spend these first few weeks getting back to fighting weight, strength training, and doing shorter long runs.  Here’s a recap of this past week.

Monday

• Waddled
• Signed for Asheville Marathon

Tuesday

• Still just walking, although now with more ease

Wednesday

• Reformer pilates.  Wishing I had the time and money to do this every day.
• SoulCycle (free through work, so why not?!)

Thursday

• Doing insane amounts of work and not seeing daylight

Friday

• Orangetheory at the NEW Orangetheory in DC (first in the city proper).  I usually run to Orangetheory in VA and am super warmed up for class.  For the closer studio in DC, I just took a little walk.  I don’t know if I wasn’t warmed up enough or if my body is still just needing more recovery time after the marathon, but class was TOUGH.  I was going about 2 mph slower than what I usually do for my base, push, and all out paces, and — especially at the beginning of class — I felt like I couldn’t get control of my breathing and heart rate.  I just decided to go a little easy on myself since this is a recovery week.  Somehow I still managed to get a good looking pyramid.

Saturday

• Nature walk with the dog and husband at the lovely but muddy Salamander Resort, which we were visiting for a wedding

Sunday

• Horseback riding
• Walking around Middleburg, VA
• Playing pool basketball with my husband in the indoor pool
• A little strength training at the resort fitness center
• Dancing up a storm

So I didn’t sneak in any running, such as the 10 miler I had hoped to do around the Salamander (the trails were nice for a moderate walk but much less extensive than I had thought they’d be), but taking it easy this week was the number one priority.  I’ll hopefully feel a little more energized this coming week.

As for my 2016 miles in 2016 goal, I have a couple of updates.  First update: I had originally planned to manually put my Orangetheory runs into Strava and have those count toward my goal.  I’ve axed that.  I don’t want to have to remember my distance and time from Orangetheory.  One of my favorite things about Orangetheory is that I just zombie out and do what the coach (and the heart rate screen) tells me to do.  So now my 2016 miles will just include outside runs and outside walks.  Second update: As of the 19th day of the year, I have walked or run 105 miles.  That is an average of 5.52 miles per day, and although that average really dipped this past week, I’m exactly on track to hit 2016 by the end of the year.

Now, fingers crossed for the cold weather to go away, for the snow to pass us by, and for the sun to keep on shining.

How long after a marathon or race do you usually get back to training?  Does your body just need a few days?  A week?  More than that?