Recovery Week

This week at Roadrunners we scaled back to 8 miles and ran at a slower pace. The coaches said that it was a recovery week. We had been building steadily for six weeks and I had run 11+ miles the week before, so we needed a rest week before we continued building up our miles.

I found the run really really slow and didn't enjoy it at all. I was frustrated and just wanted to get the run done. I wanted that feeling I had had every other week of having run further than I ever had before. I also noticed that despite running fewer miles and slower, I pulled up really sore. My legs ached on Sunday morning and I felt really tight.

It was all-around a frustrating experience.

What is interesting is that Saturday came at the end of a not-so-good week for Michelle also. She had a back adjustment on the Monday that left her with a bruised rib so she couldn't go to chiro all week. She continued her three hours of exercises at home each day with precaution and really struggled through the week to stay on track while also giving her body time to heal.

We were both tired and had one of those weeks where everything seemed harder than usual.

After the run on Saturday we were talking about how my program was on a 'recovery week' and we realised that Michelle had also been on a recovery week of sorts. Four months in to this commitment, three weeks after the massive high of the intensive treatment at St Cloud and all of these milestones passed...and now what?

Long programs and commitments are exactly that...long. And with anything that stretches over time, it is not always easy to maintain a high level of intensity and drive. Sometimes you do need to give yourself some time to rest, to recover and to get ready to go again and then you need to create your commitment everyday no matter what the circumstances.

I noticed that just as you take a break, whether by choice or not, everything can start to feel like it is falling apart. Maybe this is because you are not getting that incremental feeling of accomplishment and then it becomes easy to lose connection with your long-term goal.

So what have I learnt? I guess I have learnt that it is smart to look after yourself and factor in rest and recovery as part of my training program and see it as just as valuable as achieving a longer run each week as this is not a short-term project. In the grand scheme of things, if one week off or one week at a lower intensity prevents injury or allows me to be ready to improve more in the long run, then it works.

I must admit that I am looking forward to next week's run and I am very happy that Michelle is feeling better and back on track with her treatment. Now, having "recovered" We are both pumped up for the next phase of our programs.