It's been 1 week.....

Sounds like that Bare Naked Ladies song. It's been one week since my race and my recovery has gone nicely. I took it easy Monday since I had a long school day. I sat there totally useless in class due to mental and physical fatigue. Tuesday I had a run on my schedule but there was no way I felt OK to run. My legs still hurt and the inside of my calf was 'crampy'. Instead I went to get a massage and as usual, she worked her magic on me and I felt so much better. On Wednesday, I had a ride planned but because I felt like I was behind on my reading for school, I took the day off. You see a pattern here? And Thursday was a scheduled rest day and that made it a good day to start following my training plan ;-) By now, of course, I was feeling like a bloated pig.

Friday morning I went out for an easy 5 mile run. I felt great during the run. The temperature was nice and cool. I wore a long sleeve shirt! Yipee, I love fall running. I picked a relatively flat route, put on some tunes, and was on my way. My legs felt a little tight when I got home, but after some stretching they loosened right up.

Saturday I went for a solo ride in the afternoon. Wingman was running today and I have a run planned for Sunday so I went out alone. I took my new favorite ~21 mile route. The problem was with all of the fall/pumpkin traffic out here, it made crossing Sound Ave is a real chore. I usually cross over at the Cooperage, but not today. Too many cars. So I rode past to Edwards Ave. The Cooperage is having their usual fall festival and to attract people to come in, they had a costumed character waving at cars. Guess who high-fived me as I went past.

Yep, Elmo showed me some love!! For a second though I had a flashback to the race and when Elmo stuck his arm out I expected to exchange water bottles with him. So I went on my way with a little extra oomph in my pedal stroke. And I would need it as it was quite windy out. I rode easy as I could still feel some fatigue in my legs. There was a noticeable difference from my taper to now. Plus the headwinds were causing me problems too. Getting back home was a chore. I am not sure I ever felt the tailwinds. How wrong is that?!? I was seriously working to get back up Twomey. When I got back, Wingman told me he felt great on his run and that all the biking he did over the summer with me must have helped.

Today I went out riding again. Our running training schedules do not mesh so well. I like running on Sunday and he planned Saturday runs. He wanted to do an easy hour on the bike today so I joined him. Originally I was going to head out for ~2 hours, but I cut it down for him. It was a near perfect day. The only thing that would have made it a better ride was if all the cars disappeared for that one hour. Otherwise, the temperatures were just right and there was very little wind. I rode easy and the speed was there! Phew, I was worried after yesterday's ride that everything I worked for was gone in just one week. I will head out this afternoon to get my planned run in.

Since it's football Sunday, I will assume my position on the couch later and watch my Jets get their heads handed to them by the Patriots. I hope I'm wrong, but just in case I've got my Jets game watching uniform ready to go.