Day 78: Quickening Recovery

I've really been trying to get back into running. My goal is to be ready for next weekend's 10K. I don't plan to race it but to help pace (a zone 3 effort) someone through the race. My first race (all out effort) will actually be the following weekend.

In order to get the appropriate miles before the race I've been doing some extra stuff to expedite my recovery between runs.

• Stretching and Yoga - self explanatory
• Muscle massage - after just about every workout I massage my leg muscles with the stick to "reduce muscle soreness, stiffness and pain"
• Ice baths - I do these after every run I consider to be intense. My first year of running I used to only save these for when I did 10 miles or more but since I'm just getting back into running I have to do this for our intensity workouts and when I'm increasing the mileage.
• Compression socks - I wear these throughout the day to continue and improve the circulation in my legs.

So far all of this has helped. The days I don't do a combination of these measures I can really start to feel the muscle soreness associated with running.

9:00AM

Run

I had a lot of activities to attend today so I had to squeeze this in the morning. I ran my old route that I used to train for my first 10K. Its just a 3 mile run but it has several big hills and steady declines. I like it mostly because of the challenge of the hills.

The run went well. I was able to maintain a sub 8 pace even during the sections with the big hills. My breathing wasn't where I wanted to be but I suspect this was because of the colder temperatures outside. I'm going to go for a long run on Monday and see if I'll be ready for the 10K or not.