Post M thoughts

I'm five days into Post-Marathon Life with NO plans for another.  So far ... so good.

After practically ruining my toes, I was almost ready to consider going up yet ANOTHER shoe size, from boat to pontoon.  However, I'm experimenting with a better way to do the laces that may allow room for my high arches, yet keep my foot firmly held to the back of my shoe.  I've also found that with more reasonable running distances, like 10Ks or less, I usually don't have a problem.  I'm tossing this onto my barricade against marathon #2!  (I'm also keeping a picture of my battered toes on file, as a helpful reminder and no, I will not post it.)  But with the Hood to Coast coming, I may just buy some black polish and be done with it .... does anyone know where I can find a tiny decal of a Nike Swoosh ..... ?

Got a good pep talk from mentor/friend Mark who gave me lots of great advice that I could have used last week.  Potassium is NOT what I need.  I need Magnesium.  Well, darn.  Too late now.  Plus the unhappy news that leg cramps are a manifestation of not-strong-enough muscles.  "They go away after time," he says.  (Understood to mean:  As long as that "time" is packed with lots of track and speed work and overall working the poor ol' muscles to DEATH.  It doesn't just happen with time ALONE.  Double darn.)  I AM feeling inspired to get to the track and work on some 400 meter repeats - notice how I'm finally beginning to talk the talk?  And what's more, I understood what I just wrote.  Progress!  Anyway, apparently a woman my age should be able to run one 9-minute mile (or faster) to be statistically safe from nasty heart issues.  Just one mile, according to Mentor Mark.  (For men, it's an 8-minute mile.)  So as soon as the ol' legs are rested ..... I'll probably have a coronary just trying to hit that 9 minute goal.

I did run two sluggish miles yesterday because I'm allowing myself some serious down time and I believe in thoroughly milking what I went through last Saturday.   And two miles IS considered restful, in my book.

This weekend, Bryce & I are planning to do one of our favorite annual bike rides, the Strawberry Century, except that we're lopping off a few decades and plan to just do 70 miles on our tandem.  (Still milking.)  I'll probably blog about it, so be warned.

Finally, those two pitiful, yet glorious pounds that I lost running those 26 miles, are back with gusto.  That just about puts the finishing touch on my suspicion that life, age, and weight loss, are really not fair.