Recovery Runs

I guess I need to look back in my March blog archives to see what I did as far as recovery runs for the Little Rock Marathon, I don’t really have a plan…. So, I’m just winging it. I had planned to get up Thursday morning and do a light run around the lake, well I slept a little later than I had planned, so no run. It was nice not to actually HAVE to run.

I was feeling kind of fat, you who know me know what I mean, before I got on the scale Friday morning I had pumped myself up not to be disappointed if I had gained a pound or two, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had not gained anything, but had lost 1/2 a pound in San Francisco, that’s with stuffing my face with Ghiradelli Chocolate, Kara’s Cupcakes, Bread and Butter at every dinner, just in general pig face. I guess since we walked a million miles Monday and Tuesday…..

After the loss of 1/2 pound I did eek out 2 miles Friday morning, woohoo. The only pain I felt was in my right knee, it’s an ongoing thing I don’t mention much, I know it’s just oldness :(. I probably could have run more, just didn’t want to, HA! So, went home made coffee and enjoyed my morning before work.

This morning I was back to the Little Rock Marathon Training Group. I met Kim around 5:40am at Target and was pleasantly surprised by the 66 degree temperature outside, am I back in San Francisco?? We were a bit early, got signed in, talked with Marta, a girl I met in the neighborhood and then Tom jumped on his car and greeted us with his customary “Good Morning Crackheads!!” We were meeting at the Arts Center in Little Rock, not one of my favorite routes since it’s in “da hood” and there are no bathrooms, but hey, it was nice to be back to running with the group. I was also surprised when Tom announced “Where’s Cheryl?” I raised my hand and he told the whole crowd how I had just finished the San Francisco Marathon and everyone clapped, including myself. He also asked questions in front of everyone, about the weather, the hills, if they were worse than Little Rock and I said YES!! He then said “see you can’t keep a Crackhead away, how many miles are you doing? I said 6, he said at recovery pace, right? I replied, of course.”

It was so nice of Tom and Hobbit to recognize me, I’ve been going to the Little Rock Marathon Saturday morning training runs for a year now and they do a fantastic job, they always have route sheets printed for everyone and if you want more than the scheduled mileage they will map it out and print you your own mileage sheet. And they never leave until the last person comes back, Kim and I have only been the last ones on one occasion, I hope that never happens again though.

Several people asked me questions about the marathon as we were running, which was nice, it brought it all back like it was yesterday! One guy said “Mark Twain once said the coldest summer I ever spent was in San Francisco” or something like that. It was funny, whatever it was.

The run was actually pretty decent, I did have to take a few walk breaks, I couldn’t get my breathing under control and toward mile 5 I needed a bathroom, but it all worked out. We ended up with 5.84 miles at an average pace of 10:36 and that was with walk breaks!! I did stop my Garmin when we went inside the Peabody Hotel for a bathroom stop.

After our run Kim and I headed over to the River Market for Coffee and the Farmer’s Market, I got lots of great vegetables, okra, corn and green beans, we also split a big thing of peaches and a small tub of cucumbers. Kim is on some sort of work detail this weekend so she had to get back. This cut our traditional shopping weekend short, oh well, probably a good thing, I’m saving all my dimes and nickels these days for furniture! Kim informed me I needed to deflate the air bed, I think she’s right, this will force me to buy some living room furniture and actually start living in my new house!