Race Recovery to Race Ready Update

It has now been 6 weeks since I ran Green Swamp 50 miler and 4 weeks until my next at Gnaw Bone 50 in Indiana. The recovery from it took longer than I thought, but I've learned so much along the way. As of my last post I was on week 2 of recovery and I had just started feeling good enough to get back on my feet. I reached a new point of my training. For the first time I didn't have a training plan I was going to follow. I had decided that for the rest of the year, I would take what I've learned and try to train myself.

With 8 weeks left until my next 50, I could barely run 8-9 miles without a lot of pain in my feet. This was a great time for me to learn what different pains are and what they mean. Fatigue pain is okay and you can fight through it, where damage pain is not so good to fight through. Knowing and applying this are two different processes. Through the following weeks my goal was to feel comfortable on my feet again. I decided to cut out the long runs for a bit and focus on running more often.

Before Green Swamp, I had been running 5 days a week. I decided I would start running every day and take a break when my body felt like it needed a break. During the last 4 weeks (3/17-4/13), I have missed 3 days of running. The first 2 weeks (3/17-3/30) didn't have a run over 10 miles. I wanted to focus on getting my foot strength and balance back. During the first week of April I started mixing in some speed work and hill training. I was finally feeling optimistic about my upcoming race. With just 5 week remaining it was time to add a bit of volume to my training. I started out last week, 4/7-4/13, wanting to run every day and hoping that a few of those would be long runs. It turned out I was able to push through my first 100 mile week!

With 4 weeks left, I hope to repeat the volume this week. Then, I'll slowly start tapering for the race. I am feeling so much more optimistic about my potential race condition. It has been quite the journey watching how the body recovers from an extreme activity. Next time it should recover even quicker.