May 12, 2005

11 days post marathon -- TIRED

Is it possible that the effects of a marathon can take so long to catch up to a man? A week ago, the pain and stiffness in my legs had gone away and by Monday, I thought, "Hey, maybe I'll go for a run. No...don't. Stick to the book; stick to the plan." Still, the idea of signing up for this coming weekend's half-marathon was pretty alluring. After all, even with two weeks off, I should be able to handle a half-marathon, right?

*sigh*

Sadly, I know it isn't to be. If I can get my motorcycle done (I'm installing a CB and a weather-shielded 12v outlet for an upcoming trip), then I still plan on doing Saturday's 5K in New Jersey. It will be a good first run to get back into things, I think.

However, as of the last couple of days, and certainly today, my energy level has been in the trash. I don't know why, either. I'm eating well, and getting 8 or 9 hours of sleep each night. But I just spent three hours asleep in my recliner, after an 8-hour night's sleep. And slept better in the recliner! I'm also having some nosebleeds, which had gone away before the marathon. Very weird.

Is it possible that some recovery takes this long, not counting joints and legs? I thought I'd already gone through my post-race crash (had "the flu" for a couple days last week), but this isn't like that crash either. It's just fatigue. It's as if my body knows that it has this time - and only this time - to really be lazy and conserve energy; I have no shows right now, and am only getting ready for a trip in a couple of weeks, as well as dealing with a mound of paperwork My brain is not happy about having such a low energy level. Or perhaps my BRAIN is the real culprit because it doesn't want to tackle the paperwork!

1 comment:

Chelle said...

11 days is nothing...it takes as much as a month to really feel right again after a marathon and under duress (aka in a race) your legs will feel the effort for longer than that.