Recovery

It's only been 4 days but recovery is going well.  I keep looking at my left tibia to see if I see any "bruise-like" dark spots. (First sign of a tibia stress fracture).  I know, I know....I need to relax about that but that injury sidelined me for a LONG time.  Other than some soreness behind the knees or actually to the sides of the knees where they bend, I feel ok.  I'm waiting until Sunday to walk/jog a few miles.  I've been on a stationary bike, walked, stretched a little, & done ab ripper once so far.  I need to dive into some yoga.  With Joe's parents here Fri-Sun, I'm doubting that will happen until Monday.  I honestly won't know how things are with my body until probably the following weekend when I try to run 6-7 miles.  We have the Indianapolis 1/2 Nov 3rd.  It was our back up marathon if Chicago proved to be the scorcher that it's been in the past.  Joe's brother predicted that Chicago was due good weather in Oct a few months ago & boy, was he right!

Indy's Monumental 1/2/full course is flat.  This race is only like 5 yrs old so it's fairly low key.  It appears that they have way more runners than the Carmel, IN race but it's still low key when you compare it to Nashville's Country Music 1/2 & full here.  Of course, we're downgrading to the 1/2 when we get to the Expo on Nov 2nd.  As much as I'm anxious about trying another full marathon, I know I could possibly...

a) hurt myself 
b) only shave off a minute or two 
c) not shave any off at all & crash hard
d) a combination of the above

DD (DD, I hope you read "Part 2"  LOL!) brought up a valid point last night with the fact that I completed 26.2 miles & more than likely gained some "speed/endurance" from that alone.  I hope I did gain something by it other than roughly a 5 minute marathon PR.  I will say this...my last PR was 6 yrs ago.  I weighed about 10 lbs more than I do now.  I didn't even do a 20 miler for that PR.  I'm also 6 yrs older.  Don't ever let age crush your dreams of beating a PR.  I read an article months ago in Runners World about a late 40's guy trying to beat a marathon PR he set in his early 30's.  Of course he had to do more "work".  He had to change up some things, drop a few lbs (the healthy way, of course), & he was determined not to let age be a factor in his mindset.  He not only ran a PR, he crushed it by more than several minutes.  It's not just about the training, it's about keeping stressors out as much as you can, keeping positive motivators, determination, sleep, nutrition, and organization skills.  ;-P 

I'm still bummed about my cousin, Patti's, brother in law not qualifying.  He's Joe's age but he runs faster than Joe.  He completed a fast, flat 1/2 marathon a fews weeks ago in 1:32 & had a 24 mile training run way faster than Joe's.  He missed Boston on Sunday by just over a minute.  He didn't have his nutrition supplies already bought.  He planned to buy them at the Expo.  He waited until Saturday to attend the Expo when it was crazy.  Long story short, for some reason didn't get them thinking he had plenty & there would be a lot on the course.  There wasn't a TON of stuff on the course until the later miles.  He was running for a charity & got stuck in the charity corral with all different kinds of paces.  He should've been in corral B but it appears he was in E. That's a long way back if you think how they cram over 3,000-3,500 runners in each corral.  He zipped through the course through all the slower folks & fell short by so little.  I pray he finds a low key, close to home marathon before the end of the year because he's got it in him to qualify.  This was only his 2nd marathon, too.  ;-(

Good Luck to those racing on Saturday in the 'boro or anywhere else this weekend!