Recovery, Can I Start Training Again Yet?

OK, I know I can't and so far so good. I know I did bad according to Hal Higdon in that I ran on Sunday, yes, I’m an idiot…or a masochist, not only did I pick strawberries sore from the marathon and hung over from way too much drinking (after a 3 week abstaining time) I also got back to my house and ran, no watch, no garmin, not even any headphones and it was so nice, loosened up the legs from the drive, and just felt really good. I’m sure it was really slow, I honestly didn’t time it and just went at a comfortable pace. Anyway, I did take Monday off. Did zip, nada, zilch except go out to dinner and for frozen custard…then yesterday I elliptical trained for 30 minutes at lunch and decided I really needed a nice little run, so I went out for another 3 miles…this time with a watch, but no garmin, so still only a guess on distance, but approximately 3 miles and a little over 9 minute pace. So I’m good…no soreness, I did a little ab work last night. Now today I have intentions of going rollerblading, probably 6 miles as I know one lap won’t be enough…then I’m going to do some stretching tonight and maybe a little at home strength training, just upper body and possibly and easy 3 mile run if I feel the need for it. Most likely I won’t run though and will hold off and go an easy 4 tomorrow, cross train again on Friday and then Saturday go for an hour run…according to Hal I can do that…then I can start slowly building back up next week, most likely a 10 miler next weekend and then Marine Corp training starts. I’m working on my schedule for that, most likely will do a 16 week plan since that gives me 3 weeks to recover from my marathon, while maintaining the endurance.

The Post-Mortem on my Marathon:

I did good…that much I know. And now that I lived up to my training, it’s time to figure out the magic formula to do even better…1:55 better to be precise, although my official training time is going to be to try to hit a 3:35, give myself some cushion.

More Leg Strength: I know it was lack of leg strength for that last 10K that got me (I found the 3:40 pace band I had printed off and 2:46 was what I needed at mile 20 to be on pace and that is what I had). So a few things to get that...

1. A long run on Saturday and then do a race on Sundays. Not every Sunday, but I’m going to try doing some fast 10Ks after 20 mile long runs and see what that does for me. If I can get that 10K after a long run, that should help right?
2. Add more hills. Marine Corp has some hills at the beginning and an incline at the end, I’m going to find the toughest course I can and go over hills early, some flat and hills late and get prepared to do that at a good pace.
3. Leg strength training. Previously I was just doing the leg lunge holds, now I’m going to add a bit more into it and that along with the hills will hopefully help.
4. Finally more 20 milers. I did 2 20s, a 22 and one good 19 before this race…so I’m going to most likely try a 24, 22, 2-3 20s and maybe a 19 or so…

I think my speed work was good, so I’ll stick with what I did last time around, but probably bump up mileage a bit, it’s going to hurt in the summer, but that’s OK…anything that doesn’t kill you makes you stronger right?

Anything I’m missing??