Mon 11/18 – walking normally but allowing stairwell descents to be a bit of a spectator sport
Prying myself out of bed was not the easiest or prettiest this morning. Thankfully nothing really hurts but the quads are strung high as an assistant professor at an Ivy League institution (but let’s save that for another day). My sweet new shirt and chauffeur hat (Thank you Drs. Hill!! 🙂 from the weekend did ease the pain a bit though. Or, maybe it was the vat of Ben-Gay that I bathed in…hmmm… In related news, my office mates love me.
Overall things are just fine. I do find the following to be helpful for speeding up recovery the first few days after a marathon, today included…
1. Make a point to keep moving to help loosen things up and prevent stiffness from setting in. Get up and move around at least every 30 min or so if you’re shackled to a desk by chains masquerading as an NIH proposal (or any other detestable pile of papers)
2. Carefully rub out sore muscles (+\- Ben-Gay as your office mates and housemates sense of humor allows) and ice swollen parts.
3. Ideally after #2, carefully stretch out the legs, arms, back and whatever other parts are being egocentric. Apply more ice as appropriate. With any luck you’ll see yourself making progress here over the course of the day.
4. Drink lots of water and snack on fruits, veggies and whole grains as hungry. I always find myself feeling dehydrated and hungry when I wake up the morning after (imagine that 😉 Taking in lots of fluids and healthy, easily converted to energy, fuel seems to alleviate some of the problems.
Tues 11/19 – walking and stairs
See yesterday’s post above (minus the outfit…In an uncharacteristic series of moves I showered and changed clothes on a day with no running)
Wed 11/20 – rest
I’m feeling just about back to normal today (loose definition of “normal”of course) aside from the growing F32 pain in my ass…
Thurs 11/21 – writing like a mad scientist
Please refer the latter part of Wed’s post (i.e. last 4 words). Thank you Dr. B.
Fri 11/22 – writing x-(
See former part of Thursday’s post (i.e. first 7 words and 1 number). Dr. B, you have successfully climbed to the top of my list. Congrats.
Sat 11/23 – 6 mi 🙂
Not my prettiest 6 miles, that’s for sure, but it was great to peel my ass off of my desk chair and get the legs turned over. I felt a little heavy overall but no big pains or tight spots 🙂 The lungs started their protest only a few miles in, but in their defense they are less than a week off of a pretty respectable fight and it has gotten chilly (45F) and drier. I’ll need to stay tuned into these changes as I form my winter/maintenance/building plan.
And of course, more writing…
Sun 11/24 – F32
Total mileage = 6 mi
I’m very happy with my recovery. No injuries, not any real soreness as of Wed and a run that was (quite frankly) not much worse than many 6 milers I’ve run this season.
Ok, so what next?
Well, between now and Dec. 8th there won’t be a whole hell of a lot of time for anything besides writing this lovely wretched F32 NIH postdoctoral fellowship application that I keep referring to. I have queue of items for which I need to write posts and said fellowship has taken a number. (Hopefully I’ll get to it before I’m back here complaining about not getting it.) In short an “F32” is a funding opportunity offered by the National Institute of Health (NIH) to postdoctoral researchers in the early stages of their career. The “F” stands for fellowship (contrary to any rational line of deductive reasoning which leads to another, much more appropriate, f-type word) and the “32” is beyond my (admittedly lame) imagination. Anyway, the NIH presents this opportunity as a nearly incomprehensible mountain of “directions” with more feedback loops than a process control Ph.D. thesis. The desperate postdoc and their advisor then, to the best of their combined abilities…and multiple terminal degrees…draft, wrangle, compile and submit the ~100 documents by the deadline of that funding cycle. Deadline for this funding cycle = December 8th. When Dr. Trot was informed (by an advisor that shall remain unidentified of course) that she would be applying for this = November 18th. Aforementioned anonymous advisor has made himself very unpopular…and Dr. Trot a very ornery busy girl.
So this is the immediate next. This is also a warning that I will continue to be scarce until late in the day on December 9th or early in the day on December 10. (It just depends upon how long the hangover lasts…getting old is rough!)
Other near future nexts:
1. Thanksgiving in CA! 🙂 Feast cooking + wine county touring 5 days = AWESOME
2. Queen Penny moves to NJ! Since Dr. M will be traveling back to the homeland in December, QP will be coming back to Nj with me for a vacation with her best friend Princess Pheona. They are excited.
3. Pottery class. (No, no that was not left field…)
4. The new winter training plan that will aim to build my core strength, speed and endurance while shedding some of the in-build Insulation that I brought with me from MN. Ouch. Hopefully also a 3:xx spring marathon as well. Patrick…
DrTrot 