The rule of thumb I have read over and over is you should take one day of rest for every one mile you’ve raced, which means that I should be resting for close to a month. As anyone who has trained for a marathon will tell you, that’s pretty tough medicine to swallow, especially when you have the bug for a Fall marathon. I optimistically thought I would be able to start running the second week after the race – um, not quite. I’m feeling a little better this week, which is the beginning of the third week after the race. My next scheduled race is a 5k in June, so at the very least I want to build up the miles a little and start some speed work.
The good news with the speed work is that this is a great time of year to hit the old bike trail with the kiddies. I thought I would try some intervals last week while introducing my kids to the Henry Hudson Trail (perfect timing as my five year old is just getting acquainted to life without training wheels). On the way to the trail my seven year old son started hypothesizing about how he would be much faster on his bike than I would be running. I was certain after watching him ride last summer that this would not be the case, so a little trash talking ensued. Once we got comfortable on the trail and warmed up a little, the racing went down. I definitely had him in the early meters but once he stepped on it he was able to get past me, although we were both going “all out”. We repeated this several times (I admit I tried to get the jump on him a few times when he wasn’t expecting it to even the field a little). The next day my quads were SCREAMING at me for that, a sign in my mind that it was a good workout. So that will not be the last time he and I have a showdown on the trail. I am sure I can get closer to beating him and certainly will be able to lower my race times a little in the process.
Good timing for him too – he just had his grade school “Field Day”, so his competitive fires were still pretty stoked. I am thankful that his school still promotes fitness enough to sponsor a field day. Gym is something that has been cut down to two days a week but that’s a rant for another day. Below is a video of the hula hoop relay at field day (his form looks pretty good considering the hula hoop!).
