Quite Nicely Recovered From the Malibu Marathon...What's Next...

My recovery from the Malibu Marathon on November 14th has gone about as well as any marathon I've ever run. One week post-marathon, I was running 6-7 miles pain free and my training was pretty much back to normal this past week.

This weekend, I ran 1 hour, 33 minutes on Saturday and 1 hour, 50 minutes on Sunday, a total of 27 miles. There's a bit of soreness in my left leg, but I think that's more due to my half day of yard work yesterday.

The best recoveries mirror the best tapers, slow and gradual. I think I was able to do this. This is one area where experience truly pays off. I've injured myself way too many times the month after running a marathon, thinking I was invicible as my body is struggling to repair all the micro-tears.

My quick recuperation made me feel yesterday that I left "too much on the table" at Malibu. Though I gave it my best effort, a 3:05 for me was slow and reflected the dryness of the day, some dehydration, my battle with illness for a month and some challenging hills on the course. But my recent 5K time told me I "should" be able to run a marathon in the 2:50 to 2:55 range.

Looking back, I've run 28 marathons since 1994. I keep telling people I've run 25, having lost track. Only 2 marathons (Malibu and last year's Santa Barbara Marathon) in the last 5 1/2 years, largely paralleling the growth of my family.

Three times I have run back to back marathons within 6 weeks of one another. The last time I did this was 1999, where I ran a 2:45 Cleveland Marathon then 3 weeks later I ran a 2:40 Rock N Roll Marathon in San Diego. Don't know how I did that.

It generally is not a good idea to do much racing 2 to 3 weeks after running a hard marathon. But if you feel good after 4 weeks, heck why not.

So yesterday I decided what the heck, I'm going to run one more marathon before the end of the year. This marathon is 2 weeks from today. I have the approval of my wife, so I'm good to go and signed up.

I know some other people running this marathon and, unless they read this blog (which they probably don't, since only 7 people read it I think), I thought it would be fun to surprise them when I show up at the race.

Nothing serious...just having fun. Yes, just another nutty marathoner I am.  But all I really want is a 2:59:59 or faster marathon, since it has been 6 years since ran under 3 hours, geezer that I am.