Recovery/RR Goofy

Well, I did the Goofy.  Saturday, I woke up at 2:45 to get to Disney for the 5:30 race start.  Run/Walked it.  Finished under time.

Sunday, I woke up at 2:45, forgot my Garmin had to go back for it, took the wrong exit, had to drive the long way around to get to my 5:30 race start.  Run/WALKED it.  Finished right on time.

Goals for the weekend: 1. Do not get injured.  2. Go so slow that I can finish both races.  3. Finish both races in under max allowable time. 4. Memorize the chorus of Party Rocking.
I was 4/4.

Prior to this, I had never done a half marathon by itself, only attached to the end of a HIM, and I had never done a marathon.  My longest distance training run EVER was 13.2 miles, 2 weeks before the race, and it was only a little bit faster than my time for the half...  I was also sick with a head cold for Wednesday and Thursday last week, but for some reason when I pay over $300 on something, I feel like it is silly to not attend.

So, Sunday after the race, I immediately froze up all the muscles from about mid-calf down.  The feet would not move any more, so I walked like a 120 year old man to find my car, which my son's girlfriend and her mom was nice enough to drive me part way to.  Mine was the farthest car from the race... I practiced lying on my back and letting my legs drain into my body.
Monday was my wife's birthday, so I had to do some moving around and I had to work, so with the frozen muscles, I think I aggrivated my ankles, so there was some swelling.
Tuesday I took it easy, and in the evening I started using a tennis ball to attempt to trigger point some of the frozen muscles to relax.  I got some of them to lighten up.
Today is more of the same.  I need to go to the office, so that should be interesting.  Usually muscles freeze up in my car, so after a tough workout it will take a few hundred yards walking away from my car to get back to good.

Things I learned this weekend:
Walking is sometimes harder than running.
7 hours on your feet is 7 hours on your feet.  -Ouch.
I need to increase my game between now and November if i am going to be able to do the whole marathon thing as a portion of a tri.
I need to get on the weight loss.  250lbs is a lot to drag for long distances. JAN, FEB, MAR are great months to do this.

Thank you for enduring my upchuck of thought.

IM Florida

Coach wants me to start this back up again.  I have signed up for IM Florida, and this is sure to be an exciting year of IM Zone 2 training.

I have been working on my running, and have signed up for the "Goofy Challenge" this coming weekend, which consists of a half marathon Saturday, and a full marathon on Sunday.  I so far have only run 13 miles at one time, ever.  The race has forced me to focus on running, but I have only just in the past 10 days have gotten the discipline to run every day.  Prior to that, my 13 mile runs would put me in recovery mode for at least a week, and any run would force a recovery day, so 3 weeks ago was my first week of over 20 miles running volume.  That being said, this week I have finally gotten to the point where I can run consistently in Zone 2 without walking to bring my heart rate down.  This could be because I am getting it, or could be because I am overtrained and about to hit a wall.  I guess either way, I am going to hit a wall this weekend.

Part of the new year brings my IM training into focus.  Consistency is required.  I plan to attend as many group sessions as possible, and to volume up!  I hope to keep the running that I have built up, and over the next 3-5 months to bring the bike up to par.

Typed too much. Got to save some for next post.