Post Marathon Training Week

With the London Marathon under my belt, this week was all about rest and recovery - probably the two worst words I could hear as I am rubbish at both! This week I had told myself NO RUNNING, so aimed to stick to my rule...

MONDAY: first day after London. My quadriceps were so sore and my left knee very tight and painful. Walking - or should I say hobbling - was a chore, and stairs were near impossible. I had obviously expected the marathon to cause my body some distress but I must admit I was not quite ready for this! Having said this I still went to the gym (rocking the London Marathon finishers top of course)...! I did 45mins of stretching and foam roller work and then went to Body Pump - which I know sounds ridiculous but I made sure I was sensible! I dropped all weight virtually on the squat and lunge tracks and to be honest just dipped down a little bit - they definitely could not be called squats or lunges! The rest of the class is arm based so I could cope with that.

TUESDAY: my mobility had improved slightly today but I felt generally a lot more tired, as if Sunday's exertion had actually begun to hit me. I was booked onto my usual Body Attack class and it was probably an omen that it was cancelled. There was no way I could (or should) have done the class, but I know if it had been on I would have somehow dragged my limbs through it. Instead I opted for some more stretching and foam roller work at the gym.

WEDNESDAY: today my legs felt a lot better and with this the urge to run became a lot stronger. I resisted and did an hours cycle at the gym with moderate resistance followed by Body Pump. In Pump I still kept the weights low on all leg based tracks as I found my quadriceps were still very sore at the point of real extension such as a squat.

THURSDAY: Rest Day - probably well due by now!

FRIDAY: due to work commitments all evening I got up early and went to the gym at 7am. I was very, very tempted to go on an early morning run, even charging my Garmin overnight! But I stood by my no running rule and cycled again at the gym.

SATURDAY: today I was extremely tired, I am not one to moan about feeling tired but today I was definitely moaning! It seemed the week had caught up with me; Thursday and Friday night I had finished work at 11pm and 11.30pm respectively, plus my early morning gym session Friday, and of course the actual 26.2 miles I ran on Sunday! I opted for just a weights session at the gym.

SUNDAY: my Sunday's for the past months have been 'long run days' and if felt so odd not waking up and getting into running mode. It felt even stranger to think a week ago it was the actual marathon! With the notion this would be my last cross training session before I could allow myself to run again I headed for the gym for some intervals on the bike and cross trainer. Roll on running on Monday - looking forward to seeing how the legs feel!