First real run since Phoenix Marathon 8 days ago. Running sick did a number on my body and seems to have set me up for a long recovery process. Legs still felt hammered from about 2 miles in today. Did a group run with Jake, Fritz, Nate, and Rossy south from Highland High. They wanted 10, I wanted a little less. After 4 miles or so, they did a 1 mile-ish loop around some park, so I skipped this mile in favor of stretching out my legs. We had averaged low 7 up to this point, but picked it up afterwards with a 6:5x and then a 6:44, at which point, my legs had had enough. That one mile in 6:44 (17 seconds/mile slower than what I averaged in the marathon 8 days ago) felt like 5k/10k effort after 6 miles of running, which was a little scary. Hah. The group seemed to want to keep running sub-7s, which I had no interest in whatsoever, so I let them take off and dropped my pace to 7:45 for the last 2.5 miles. There are days to push and days to just listen to your body, and today was definitely the latter. I hit 8.5 miles in 62 flat and had to sit down for a few minutes to rest my trashed quads and calves. I didn't expect to feel great today, but I was a little surprised at just how bad I felt. I guess I've never simply taken 8 days off after a marathon before, so I think having had an active recovery would've been helpful. That said, the major factor here was probably just being sick. I was still feeling it in my sinuses yesterday, 7 days after the marathon and 10 days after first getting sick, but I think running today finally cleared everything out for the most part. At the very least, it can only get better from here. :) | 