One of great things about my Trail Mix experience was the great people I was with. I knew I could give everything I had as part of the event and I wouldn't to worry about taking care of myself afterwards. Even though my time wasn't what I was expecting I did put in all the effort I had to finish as quickly as I did.
The day after the race I slept in as best I could. I think I was still up before 8:00. My goal was to keep moving, but not to really exert myself at all. I spent the day unpacking all of our gear, taking care of some odds and ends around the house and some light stretching. The most strenuous thing I did all day was going to the grocery store to pick up some stuff for breakfast. My muscles felt tired and I could tell my heart rate was a little elevated. Joints and tendons felt good, but my quads were really hurting. Sitting or standing back up were problematic as I needed to use my arms to help raise and lower myself. Surprisingly my biceps were sore, I figured this was from holding my arms up for 7+ hours of running.
Monday morning Erin and I got up early. She headed out for a 6 mile run and I headed in to work early. During the work day things felt similar to the previous day, but not as intense. Still a lot of pain in the quads when sitting down or standing up and some pain in the biceps with no pain in joints or tendons. After work I hit up the gym for a short recovery bike ride. I didn't want to push myself too hard and the fact that my headphones had fallen out of my bag during the trip and Maggie still had them made it easy to stop after half an hour. My heart rate was a bit high for the effort I put in but I wasn't too concerned about it. After the bike ride the quads didn't hurt as much and by now the soreness in the biceps had completely gone away.
Tuesday morning we slept in. I was planning on testing myself with an early morning run, but when the alarm went off I decided that sleep was more important to my recovery. When I did get up I noticed that my legs had tightened up considerably. The tightness in my calves was causing some tenderness in my arches. This tenderness persisted through the day at work. I also noticed throughout the day I began to feel stronger. I was able to crack my back and neck for the first time since the event. After work I went for a run and was able to put in just shy of 6 fast miles. Starting out I had a bad side ache which is very unusual for me, but it went away after a couple of miles. When I got back I did the cold water soak in the tub and things almost feel back to normal. My quads are still a little tender to the touch, but they didn't bother me during the run.
Going forward I'd like to get an easy run in on Wednesday, put in a longer run Thursday and hopefully be back at full strength in time for the group run on Saturday. That may be a bit optimistic, but I can adjust if the soreness starts to creep back in.
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