Not sure whether to rest or resume (Read 756 times)

Ran a 16-mile race last Sunday - ran it decently fast for me for my first one, and sped up by about 45s per mile for the last 3 miles. Then ran 4 more miles afterwards with a running buddy, because we wanted to accomplish 20 miles that day. My upper legs were sore the next day -- felt stiff walking downstairs, like after a marathon, but not nearly as bad. So I took Monday off. Tuesday I ran 2 easy, then ran a 5K x-country course (I was helping out, and had never seen the course, and wanted to see it). Today I ran short (2.5) in the morning, and medium (9) in the evening. My upper legs are still faintly sore. I've never raced a long race before (I've done one marathon, but I did it slow, so it wasn't exactly racing.) Should I rest more, or take tomorrow off, to ensure I get enough recovery benefit? I've just managed to get to abt 60mi/week in the past two weeks, for my high before a marathon at the end of the month, so part of me wants to put in more miles this week to get near 60 once more, but another part wonders if I'm lowering the benefit of the race/long run combo by getting in miles instead of recovery. (Note: I have a 10-mile race this coming Sunday, but I probably won't try to go as fast on it if I'm still feeling a bit sore.)

I agree with Ilene. Not a great idea to race a hard 10-miler so soon though.

Nothing faster than easy runs only, keep the distance limited to 4-5 miles for a couple more days. If you can't discipline yourself to reign it in for this 10 miler, skip it and just run easy long somewhere. If you were feeling fine by this point, I'd say do the Sunday race, but you're not so it means you have some tissue damage. You can run through it no problem, but you can't race through it.

Nice log, amores. If you run, run very easy. Listening to your body means living to fight another day. If you can swim at all, or can stand aqua-jogging, it might be a good time to jump in the pool. When's your goal race? When you come out on the other side of this, you're gonna fly.

Sure, I like swimming. Have a practice tri tomorrow, but will probably do the run leg with someone else to keep myself from racing it My goal is a marathon at end of this month, so getting close and no injury so far -- happy, happy.

Holy crap you are so gonna PR by like an hour. All you gotta do between now and then is make it to the starting line.

Holy crap you are so gonna PR by like an hour. All you gotta do between now and then is make it to the starting line.

That is really because I ran the first one in such a way as to PR the second one -- that is, *really* slow. This is kind of the anti-Salazar approach, and I think it is good for morale -- leave lots of room to be able to improve