I may be moving slowly the last few days but at least I am moving. I took Sunday as a total body recovery day complete with a nap and early to bed. Those three games of soccer took a toll on my body as I am STILL sore all over yesterday. Knowing that I can’t rest forever I decided to do a walk/run combo last night after the girls went to bed. I thought it would be good to move a little, shake out my legs and see if my toe can handle running.
So, I put on my running gear before the girls went to sleep – no excuses right! I even had the dinner dishes cleaned – yeah I was that serious about running.
Around 7:30 I gathered all my tools {cell phone, land line phone, new tablet, head phones, baby monitor and my water} and headed down to the treadmill. I turned it on and tried to figure out how to use my new tablet to watch a show – should have done this before I wanted to walk/run. It took a little while but I managed to figure it out.
I started walking at a super slow pace…just enough to move. Then I slowly increased the speed after a 10 minute warm up walk {about .82 of a km}. I would start running and then slow it down to a walk, over and over again until I hit the 3 kilometer mark at which I felt like I could remain running. My left hamstring wasn’t too happy and my poor left toe (which was feeling really good until supper time) started to throb, but I kept going. My goal was 4k at this point.
Note – I should be starting my 1/2 Marathon training this week but haven’t committed to a training plan. Yikes!
I was running at a good pace and the show I was watching {Night Shift} wasn’t finished yet so I decided to run 5k. Just before 5k I decided to walk a little for a little cool down. I was pretty happy to have finished 5 kilometers. I drank some water, stretched a bit. Then ate 1/2 a Vega Chocolate Coconut Sports bar #yum and some soy chocolate milk #doubleyum!
Somehow I managed to run, eat, shower, get the girls bags ready for today all by 10pm! Superstar! I iced my toe again, took some Vitamin I {ibuprofen} as recommended by my husband and rested in bed. All of a sudden I couldn’t handle the ice on my toes, it was almost like I was starting to panic … so off it came. I went to bed at 10:47 and woke up diagonal in our bed at 6:25 am when my alarm went off. I SLEPT FOR 7.5 HOURS STRAIGHT! Thank you girls for sleeping all night and letting Mommy get the rest she needed.
I wasn’t too excited to get out of bed, dreading the aches and pains that I’ve had the last few mornings. I slowly got up and put my feet on the floor, stood up and walked to the bath room – no pain, no sore muscles! Moving slowly can pay off 🙂
How long does it take you to recover from a sporting event?
Do you push through minor pain or rest until 100% better?
What’s your favourite 1/2 Marathon training plan?
Piper's Run 
Moving when sore is hard to do. Good to let your body recover for a day or two and then start again. Great job on the ru/walk. When i first started reading the things you were picking up i was wondering how you were going to carry all those things running and why you needed them?! lol
I push through minor pain and depending on what I do for a workout and if it is new it can take me two days to four days to recover. No fave training plan. Have only used one I found online once and even then I only followed it for the long runs.
HA ha – could you imagine running with all those things 😉 Na, I just have them all handy so I don’t have to jump off the treadmill and grab it. Once I’m on the TM I don’t like to get off – unless one of the girls is crying I stay on.
I’ve found two good training plans. One only takes me to 19km the other to 22km – so I’m trying to decide which one to do. Fun times!
My first thought is to go with the one that takes you farther. It can never hurt to have your body run longer so you are really ready for the big day.
I have found with myself that the 18k mark is the worst so running past that a few times would be good for me. Next time I train for one I will think about running past the 18k mark a few more times in training. Good luck!
Thanks for the tip!!! I’m running the Valley Harvest 🙂 Have you done it before?
No, I haven’t done it but since work is busy in May I thought about doing it in 2015 since I wouldn’t be able to run the Blue Nose. I remember you doing it last year right? I think that is how I first heard about it.
Yes, I ran the 5k last year (10k a few years before that) – it’s a great race!
That’s a great idea – having your medals and race bibs in front of the treadmill as motivation!
It used to be a bunch of random stuff and I thought one day that it was horrible to stair at. My goal is to display everything on boards…I’ll get there some day 🙂
These days I’m a bit of a baby–I get super paranoid about injuries, but if it is minor, then I try it out, and go from there. And my problem is I don’t always realize that my body is still recovering, and I push it… and then get hurt. WOMP WOMP
Yeah, I’m trying to take it slow this week but still get some km in 🙂
Ouffff… I took me good 3-4 days to start walking normally after the Super Spartan, I walked down the stairs backwards even for longer lol. I am kind of scared of the consequences of the Spartan beast in 1.5 weeks lol! I have never trained for a half marathon, but I recently got the Runner’s World with a plan in it which looked reallu good, so I guess that’s what I’ll follow when I get done with this race. ALso congrats on pushing it through, I know how tough it can be! xoxo
Next time I’m going to try walking down the stairs backwards – good lord that was the worst!!! Good luck at the Spartan Beast!
Thanks! And definitely do, you have NO idea lol!
I use a modified version of Hal Higdon’s training plans that work well for me. I substitute my mid week longer run for a bike ride to save my knees and it’s done wonders for me! I run through minor pain, and rest when my body tells me to, usually, LOL
I’m think of trying Hal’s training plan – we’ll see how it goes!
Good luck! I love it!
Great job getting moving again. Sounds like your approach was smart (and successful). 🙂
So far so good!
It takes me three full days to move correctly after a full marathon. Sometimes just a little bit of blood flow is good for recovery. Sounds like you’re doing it right!
Today is Day 3 post soccer games and I’m feeling great. I’m happy I got to shake out my legs last night and hoping for another easy/slow run tonight.
I tend to be a push through minor pain kind of person. Sometimes the pain is just a little kink to be worked out. I make sure to not push it too hard though! I think it sounds like you are definitely doing it right and I hope you are back to 100% ASAP!
My was still bothering me last night but Lilly also stepped on it by mistake – THAT was awesome! Ahh well, it could be worse.
Great job! It sounds like you handled getting back to normal in just the right way that your body needed. Hopefully your toe will be all back to normal soon!
I’m hoping it does too! It’s still not 100%.
If it’s an activity I haven’t done before/in a while, I may take 4-5 days to recover…yikes! I love those chocolate/coconut vega bars!!! Do you have an idea as to what type of training plan you are going to follow? I use Hal Higdon’s plans and he has a variety for different levels of ability. You should check it out: http://www.halhigdon.com 🙂 Happy running!
Thanks for the link. I have two plans but trying to decide between the two. One has the longest run at 18k before the race and the other 20k – which distance would you do?
It would likely take me three months to recover from three soccer games. I push through minor pain depending on what it is. I’m pretty good at distinguishing what I should worry about and what is just normal running pain (thanks to all my past injuries). My half training plans all depend on what the course is like so no real set plan.
Pushing through easy is what I’m trying to do – so far so good but my dang toe isn’t 100% yet. What’s the highest km/miles you’d run before the race in your training plans?
I’m taking a different approach with my trail race training and I’m running for time versus distance. Typical runs are 1.5 hrs with one longer run of 1 hr 45 or 2 hrs each week. I’m running on trails almost 100% though and I like the time approach as my pace is different on trails compared to a road or flat surface.
Way to get through it! I know how tired/sore I am after a soccer tourny. I do push thru if it’s just soreness, but it’s something else if it’s an injury. I am almost never 100% rested/notsore. We save that for the taper! ahhaha!
I just keep thinking of the tournament as my speed training (for a few weeks).
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