Easy Recovery Running

The morning after yesterday's speedier exertions, we got together today for a really easy 7 miler. Gilbert emphasized that we weren't to go fast at all, that this was all about letting the legs have a rolling recovery. The Chicago marathoners who didn't race yesterday went out for a single 2000m loop at marathon goal pace, with easy warmup and cooldown on either side of it. Those Chicago peeps who did race yesterday weren't really supposed to be here at all.

So, our pack of Alex, Liliana, Amy, Marcy and Richard did the I-35 loop clockwise for a change. We followed Gilbert's instructions to the letter, covering 7.1 miles at an average 10:05 running pace. We stopped for water twice, because we could, and finished things off with strides (6x100m strides). It was a really social run, with a lot of conversation as we enjoyed the easy running. That didn't stop it from being a warm and muggy morning, but the run itself was quite nice. HR numbers were perfectly in the recovery zone, too.

After that, Alex and Amy and I did stretching (Richard did the "accelerated" version of the stretching ritual, just to hit the high points), and then the three of us did a range of situps totalling 200. I particularly enjoyed when I made Alex laugh so hard that he couldn't finish one of his first sets. That was a first!

This was just a nice day of running, as we wait for the long-promised cold front coming in on late Wednesday, supposedly. I'm not exactly sure what Gilbert will have in store on Wednesday for those of us not doing Chicago, but it might be 800's again. We'll see. In the meantime, tomorrow is an easy run again with a visit to the gym, which should work out any residual soreness from the race. I'll also get a massage scheduled for Wednesday as preventative maintenance.