I’m taking a very casual approach to post-marathon recovery this time around. Although I’m loosely following a recovery schedule from Advanced Marathoning, I didn’t run at all for six days post-race, then did five on Sunday and Monday, and seven yesterday, plus a little time on the stationary bike. I ran too many miles too soon and too fast in April; I won’t make that mistake again.
It’s been difficult to run slow, since my legs feel really good and — coupled with the cool weather — it’s a lot of fun to be out running again. But I’ve kept things at avg 70% max heart rate so far. I will do a 10 mile easy run (75-82%) on Sunday, which I’m so looking forward to.
I have gained weight from eating and drinking too much of the wrong things. No surprise there, but it is a little distressing. Hence, the time on the bike. I’ll do a longer ride this evening.
Now that it’s cold, I’ve rediscovered the pleasures of eating oatmeal. I started buying McCann’s Irish Oatmeal from Trader Joe’s. This stuff rocks.
I’ll be planning out my spring training this weekend. I’m pretty much sold on the idea of returning to the plan I used from Advanced Marathoning (the 18 weeks at 70+ mpw plan), with the same modifications I made the first time around. The biggest difference this time around will be that I’ll start out with a much bigger mileage base (100+ mpw vs. 80 mpw last year) and I may shorten the plan to 14 or 16 weeks.
Lots to look forward to.
Races Like a Girl 
Uncle Tobys http://www.nestle.com.au/uncletobys/ rocks more.
I think you’ll do well. There is lots to look forward to. The hard days/easy days is difficult to get right. Mottram also trains like that – they call it black/white – he does very easy easy days and extremely hard hard days.
Watch out for the black ice!