Marathon Recovery

I'm feeling surprisingly good today considering what I went through yesterday, but one thing I've learned during this training session is how to speed up recovery. Here's what helped this time around, in bullet form because I'm running out of steam tonight.


Post-Race Yesterday:

• refuel - by the time I finished, all there was to eat was cold pizza and pancakes. I wanted to hot food and my usual fried eggs, so we stopped at a dinner no the way home. 
• ice bath - as soon as I got home I sat in an ice bath. It worked wonders as usual.
• compression - after the ice bath I put on my 110% compression capris and compression socks and laid in bed with feet elevated.  
• ibuprofen - this goes without saying

Today:

• compression & ice - as soon as I woke up, I put my compression pants and socks back on and used the pockets to ice my knees, quads, and hamstrings.
• walking - Before I could get too comfortable and lethargic from lying in bed watching TV all day, I went for a walk. As luck would have it, Tami was at Lake Eola already and I walked 3 miles with her! I was shocked at how little soreness I felt while walking and that I was able to manage my normal walking pace. I did start to feel soreness towards the end of the walk, so I iced again as soon as I got home (I was still wearing my compression gear during the walk).
• yoga - I thought I was too sore for yoga, but thought I'd give a try. It felt fine, but I only managed 12 minutes. 
• massage - I went for an hour and a half relaxing massage this afternoon that felt wonderful.
• ibuprofen - this goes without saying

Tomorrow:

• yoga
• walk
• The Stick
• maybe a short, slow jog

So that takes care of the physical recovery; I'm still working on the mental recovery. I know that I was all smiles yesterday trying to pretend I was ok, but I'm crushed and went through the 5 stages of grief all over again today. Now I'm mentally exhausted, but I know I'll bounce back soon enough so this is a topic for another post.