Training-wise, I was totally out of commission for five days. I don't think I've taken that many days off from running since last year when I was injured. I expected to have challenges with pace afterward, but the muscle soreness has been a surprise. My calves, glutes, and back have all been achy since I started back.
I did not run on Monday or Tuesday of week 13, but I ran in some form or another everyday for the rest of the week, including some fun runs with my kids.
Wednesday: I went out with no expectations. My training plan called for 9 miles, but I figured it would be best to keep it easy and short. It took a couple of miles to get my legs moving and feel back in the groove. 4.12 miles at 9:33 pace.
Thursday: Since 4 miles felt pretty good on Wednesday, I decided to try the 9 mile workout with 4 marathon-pace miles on Thursday. My first five miles were really slow, but then I think the prednisone might have fueled me to push a little harder than I should have on the last four. Marathon pace was supposed to be around 9:15, but I ran 9:09, 8:56, 8:52, and 8:46. This run felt great at the time, but I had some muscle soreness afterward. Overall: 9 miles at 9:21.
Friday: Technically I took Friday off, but I did run with my children after work. We ran some trails near my daughter's after-school program which took us past the high school football field, where the team was warming up for Friday night's game, and found ourselves in a playground, where we stopped for a short play break. We ran/walked two miles total, with the kids taking turns setting the pace.
Saturday: The training plan called for 15 miles, but since I had missed a longer long run while I was sick, I decided to up the mileage to 17 miles and stick to an easy pace. I started slow, and kept thinking I'd ease into a faster pace, but it never happened. It was just a slow kind of day. At mile 13, I was so hungry that I stopped at a convenience store and inhaled a hot buttermilk biscuit. This wasn't a great run, but it wasn't so bad either. I never felt like I NEEDED a walk break, although I took a few near the end to savor some shady patches on the path. It was pretty hot and sunny for a tropical storm weekend! Overall: 17.05 miles at 9:49 pace.
Sunday: When my alarm went off at 5:30, I decided that my legs were just too sore for running. My husband was supposed to go to work around 9:30, so I had already mentally chalked the day off as a rest day. It turned out he didn't have to work after all, and once I had been moving around for an hour or two, my legs didn't feel so bad after all. So I hit the pavement at around 8:00, much later than I typically get out. We had some nice cloud cover from the storm activity, so the late start didn't translate to a hotter run. It poured for the last 4-5 minutes, sideways rain that made me thankful that I have more than one pair of running shoes, because those bad boys aren't going to be dry for days. That nice little shake-out run was 5.16 miles at 9:29.
Bonus Sunday run: My 4-year-old son loved our Friday run, and begged me all weekend to take him again. When I got home from my Sunday morning run, he was hurt that I hadn't included him, so I changed into some dry clothes and shoes, and we went back out. We ran a loop through a fairly hilly subdivision, where we got to cross two bridges -- very exciting stuff when you're four. We finished at a beach access just as another squall was coming in, and we played on the beach in the rain. We covered 1.3 miles with lots of stops to jump in puddles (another pair of shoes down and out for a few days).
Total training miles: 35.33
Total miles, including fun runs: 38.63
By far, the best of the bunch was the second Sunday run. We laughed, we held hands, we got drenched. My tiny son had a huge smile and a hello for everyone we passed. His joy was infectious, a perfect end to a week of recovery.
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