It Puts the Icy-Hot on its Skin

Well, the race is over but my body wants to be sure I'm not thinking about doing anything crazy like THAT again anytime soon.

Don't worry body - I won't.

Have you ever been near the end of a long workout and found your mind to be in one place but your body to be in a completely different one? Often times, my training keeps my mind and my body on similar wavelengths. I mean, it's not often that one trains w/o the other, right? Every once in a while though, particularly in races or extra long training rides/runs, I find my head to be just the slightest bit fresher than the rest of my body. And apparently I'm not alone...

It's hard not to pull for this guy. Jens Voigt is AWESOME.

I had that sort of realization on Sunday at the race. Since I surrendered early on to the reality of my unhealed knee and foot injuries, I stuck with my friend and ran the marathon completely at his pace. Since his pace was slower than where I trained, this meant that mentally I got to take a break from what I'm used to - SWEET.

I enjoyed the entire race - all of it! My mind stayed fresh absolutely all the way through. I could take in all of the sites, converse with lots of runners throughout the day and was absolutely all smiles whenever I ran across friends and family.

But still, I had just moved 26.2 miles and my body was making damn sure I didn't forget it.

Aches and pains were quick to set in. The most debilitating of said pains were the over-use injury that had just crept in 2 weeks before the race on my right knee. That's the one that hit me first, hit me early, and hit me hard. From very limited past-experience, icing helps, but not nearly as much as it helps a sore or strained muscle. I tried Advil, but that really doesn't feel like it's doing much to help me. Icy hot, however, is quite nice! My coworkers, however, HATE me for it.

And so begins the long road to recovery. My next event is the Detroit Turkey Trot - Thanksgiving morning back in Detroit, MI. I don't plan to run for the first time until at least 2 weeks after the finish of the marathon, but will gradually re-incorporate my swim workouts. I need to get smart about incorporating more weight training and knee-specific exercises in there so that I can get back into things with a more solid foundation. Knee injuries suck, and I want to get this behind me as soon as possible.

Until then, however, I'm going to enjoy the crap out of going to the Wilson Aquatic Center for the next two weeks and using their hot tub!