Post Race Recovery Report

I have done a few half marathons and one full marathon. The days following these races are usually quite painful. Going to the bathroom means using my arms to lower myself because my quads are shot. Even following the Avenue of the Vines this year (during my training for Barb's Race) I suffered in the days after the race.

Could only wear these for a short time

Today is the second day after completing a 70.3 and I am feeling remarkably well. So well in fact that I even considered going in to work today (I had scheduled it off to recuperate)... but I decided to stay home and enjoy the day :-)

The night of the race, I tried doing an ice bath. It was a half hearted attempt. I went light on the ice and only stayed in it for about 5 minutes. I also took Advil in more of a pre-emptive attempt to ward off pain. 

I put on full compression pants for about 1/2 an hour, but my legs had this weird energy, twitchy feeling and the pants were making me nuts! I switched to compression socks instead and felt better. 

Sleep was elusive that night...it was harder sleeping the night following the race than the night before the race. I think I was still all keyed up from the race.

Feed Me!

Eating was difficult following the race (I usually never eat post race). Everyone expected me to be famished, but I wasn't. In fact, I was only able to eat half of my pizza at Jackson's and this pizza was amazing!

Post-race pizza at Jackson's with the support crew

Sunday was a different story. My appetite returned with a vengeance! HS and I stopped at Black Bear Diner in Sonoma and I ordered the California Bacon Benedict. I almost ate everything on the plate. The funny thing was, as I am eating breakfast, I'm telling HS what I want to eat for lunch/dinner!

Impressive pile of empty sugar packets spotted at Black Bear Diner

Once we got home and the girls returned from the mall, we headed over to Casa Flores so I could get the shrimp tacos I had been talking about at breakfast. The waitress laughed when she saw my empty plate. (Seriously though, it was one shrimp taco and some rice & beans...not a ton of food). I didn't eat again til after 8pm. I realized I was hungry again and found some pasta the kids had made. 

Odds and Ends

In my race report, I mentioned my bike bag barely hanging on. Here's a pic after I got the bike back to the hotel...

I think what had happened was that the bag was so heavy that it slipped through the strap. It probably didn't help that it was at a fairly steep angle because of my seat. Oh well, I never really liked this bag and will be looking for something different...besides, it's been a few days since HS bought me anything ;-)