Fast and complete recuperation are two of the most important elements of improving your athletic performance – especially if you run a hard training schedule. Faster recuperation means you don’t fall behind: you can fit more training sessions in, and you’re not out of commission for a week or two after a big event. More complete recuperation means your training sessions will be more productive: you’re body is stronger and more fully healed, ready to push harder. And if you can train harder and more often without suffering the negative consequences of over training, your performance will improve, along with your general well-being.

Immediately after the race I was feeling pretty bad, but after a few hours I went out to eat with my family and then got in my car and drove back to NYC. The next day I worked a full day and was a little rough, but by Tuesday I was feeling great and today [Wednesday – 3 days after the marathon] I went for a bike ride and felt like I was completely recovered from the marathon, I had an amazing amount of energy.

Energy level is pretty high. Normally yesterday would have been the end of the 2nd week in a 3 week cycle (2 weeks of build/1 recovery…”normal” protocol for an athlete my age), but I actually feel well enough to see what it would be like to try a 4 week cycle of 3 weeks of build/1 recovery, just like the good old days. I’ll know more after my tempo run tomorrow, but so far, I’m really impressed with my recovery.