Worse Than Tapering

I'm pretty sure there is something worse than tapering...recovering post-race!  See, during the taper, you at least have the focus of not screwing up all the hard earned fitness.  Post-race recovery is all about letting  race day stress soak in and removing all the fatigue from your body through consistent, but light training.  At first, it was easy - I was pretty darn sore 2 days after the race.  I had no interest in doing much training at all!  But after some casual walks around the neighborhood and some spins on the bike, my legs are very quickly starting to feel normal again.  Hooray!

But see that's where it is so easy to mess up the recovery process.  While my legs might feel normal, they likely aren't....yet.  And while it seems like ages since I ran the marathon, its only been 10 days.  Anytime you take extended recovery, thoughts of loss of fitness creep in and start to play games with the mind.  This is where being equally diligent about post-race recovery as you would your taper comes into play. 

The reality is that you need to lose some fitness in order to make greater gains in the next training buildup.  So long as you remain somewhat active (without too much stress), the de-training done during recovery is just enough to allow you to enter your next training bout with fresh legs, but still bring greater fitness to the table than the last time.  Non-impact activities like cycling and swimming still work your aerobic system and core work/yoga helps maintain strength and elasticity in your muscles during this time.  This repetitive cycle allows you to gradually increase your fitness year over year, establishing a new baseline after each recovery period.

Most reference books and experts recommend as many days as miles in your race to allow for this recovery to take effect.  In this case, that's about a month.  But to mentally get my head around it, I split my recovery into two components: 

1) Two weeks of very light active work;
2) Two weeks of slowly incorporating a few more "regular" activities. 

By the time the month is over, my mental state will be ready to sink my teeth into the next training plan and my physical state will allow me to hit the workouts with the same intensity as my mind wants you to do.  However, the same caution should be taken the intensity is brought back up - slowly incorporating it as the body gets used what was its regular routine.  And after those 4 weeks, I plan to take another week or so to just run - no goals or structure other than consistent running.  After that, I'll finally be back and once again, a happy runner training as normal.

Of course, it is much easier to outline the goals of post-race recovery than to actually execute the recovery itself.  Execution is always the hardest part.  I've been doing great at staying the course so far.  But you see, there is a small problem - I have a race smack in the middle of it...oops!  Here is where reality and theory clash a bit.  It is obviously not in my best interest to run a 10k race 2 weeks after the marathon.  Of course, I've done it before.  However, this is an annual race we always run, so run I will!  As for how fast...only the effectiveness of my recovery thus far will showcase that on Saturday.  Until then, recovery continues ;)

Why I Won't Be Volunteering At The National Marathon This Year

For the past...oh...I don't know...4 years or so, Rebecca and I have been in some way involved in the National Marathon.  Either by running it or by volunteering, we both have enjoyed participating in this local race that has grown exponentially since its early days.  Well this year, that streak will end and let me tell you why.

Several months back, we had received an email sent out to previous volunteers notifying us that we could sign up.  After discussing with a few friends that we were going to add to our volunteer fun-dom, we went onto the site to sign up.  To our amazement, there were no spots to volunteer at aid stations.  Rebecca and I both thought, "Huh, that's strange, we've always volunteered at aid stations before", so we decided to investigate the glaring omission a bit further.

A quick email response through the POC listed on the site informed us that because we were not affiliated with a "group", we could not sign up for an aid station.  Say what????  This year, they were taking things in a very different direction, and one that leaves me frustrated and confused.  In order to establish better organization at each aid station, they have been assigned out to "groups" that signed up collectively to work them.  In principle, I understand the premise - To be more organized.  But here is where the National Marathon loses out big time from people like our "group".  We're not a large organization or a church group or enough people to staff a full aid station.  We are simply a group of people that enjoy playing an ACTIVE part in the race, but somehow we are now blocked from participating in the one area that makes people want to volunteer in.

To be truthful though, we were offered "alternative roles" (and I say this with air quotes).  We could:
A) Be a course marshal - the problem here is that they are only assigned as 2 people per station, so we wouldn't be together, thus negating the point of involving more friends
B) Work bag check - while it may not be an ideal role for me but something I'd do just to help out, my friends who wouldn't typically volunteer certainly would not find this kind of role something that would motivate them to get up at the a$$ crack of dawn to do
C) Work at the expo stuffing bag - this defeats the whole point of volunteering during the race
D) Work the SAG wagon - no offense, but this is also not a role most people who want to be actively involved in a race would be motivated to do    

So you may be asking, "How would I recommend a solution?"  Here's how and it's very simple.  Delegate these "groups" to be responsible for the leadership role of each aid station out on the course.  Open up a smaller number of spots for individuals like us to volunteer at the aid stations.  It is as simple as that.  And I have volunteered at other races that have employed this exact approach effectively.  Nobody gets left out and everybody has a fair chance to volunteer for a position they are interested in.

So in the end, we ultimately decided that because there was no possible way for us to be involved in the aid stations or in another active role together, we'd rather just do our own thing.  Hopefully in the future this gets corrected.

But don't worry, we'll still be out there.  I've got lots of runners who will be out there earning their racing stripes.  And I will be cheering them on and supporting them as best I can.