Post-race recovery

I had originally planned on taking an entire week off from working out after my half in order to give my hamstring a break. I mentioned this plan to a coworker who also runs, and he acted like that was too much time off. So I decided that 2 days off was sufficient, and ran on the Wednesday after the half. My shins were so ridiculously tight, but I kept on running. Then I ran on Thursday, and it was so painful that I could barely finish. I was hobbling for days. I ended up skipping my "long" run last Saturday. I'm going to try running with Liz today out at her cow pasture, and I hope things are better. Right now my left hip is so tight that I can't crouch down and then get back up easily. My hips have always popped out easily, and now I can't make it pop. I'm sure the 2 are related somehow.

I guess I didn't learn as much about listening to my body as I thought I did. I'm a bit worried about stress fractures or something, but I hope my legs are just sore from the combination of weather changes and the fact that I ran a half. If this is how long it takes me to recover from a half, I'm going to end up bed-ridden after the marathon lol.

My birthday was last Sunday, and my husband got me a pair of those yurbuds headphones. I really wanted a blue pair, but the volume button control thing isn't available in the blue ones, so I got the red pair. I can always buy a blue set of the ear covers when I eventually have to replace them. I haven't run with the headphones in yet to see how well they stay, but they withstood my bouncing up and down test. Mom is sending me $100 towards new running shoes for my birthday, and Liz and I are going to hit up the Red Coyote running store after our 5K on Nov 3.

I've been trying to figure out if I should get a gps watch. I really like the Garmin Forerunner 10, but I'm concerned about the battery life (rumored to be only 6hrs-not sure of what my marathon time will be yet) and lack of foot pod compatibility. The dcrainmaker reviews a lot of the GPS watches, and he's very thorough. His wife is very petite like I am, and she liked the forerunner 10, but prefers the FR310XT. But then she's a triathlete, and I'm not (but want to be someday). I've been looking at the Nike+ GPS watch too, but it seemed very loose on dcrainmaker's wife's wrist. I really like the Motorola MOTOACTV because it can clip on your waistband, but the battery life sucks. I just can't decide what I need, or if I even need a gps watch at all. Right now I use my mapmyrun app on my phone, and listen to audiobooks at the same time. I really like how the app yells at me every mile to tell me what my pace/distance/speed is, and a watch wouldn't necessarily yell at me (although I could just look down lol). I'd have to get an ipod shuffle or something to put the audiobooks on if I leave my phone in the car too. I'm worried about my phone getting damaged from the sweat in my spibelt. I can't decide if I really need a watch or if I'm just lusting after new toys. I'd lose the ability to text people during runs/races if I left my phone in the car. It sounds like I really don't NEED one per se, but that I just want a new toy. I can't decide.


Run Summary:

10/10/12: (Wednesday)
Stats: 3 miles in 37:11. Shins very tight.

10/11/12: (Thursday)
Stats: 3 miles in 37:51. Shins very very achey.