Ultra Recovery

It has been just over a month since I finished the Woodstock 50K and am pretty close to a complete recovery.  I say pretty close because I still have a tiny pain near my shin that appeared a few months before Woodstock and still shows up before and after runs.  It goes away while running and when I am diligent with the muscle rolling.  The two weeks following the ultra I was still on an emotional high and things seemed awesome.  However these last two weeks have been difficult.  Without another large race until next August I feel a bit lost when it comes to training.  I have also realized that the two week taper before and two week reverse taper after have not been so kind to my waist line.  Gaining 10lbs in a month because my appetite forgot that my body was not running as much is "tough to swallow".  This has not helped my mood, which in turn means I run for the peanut butter instead of the carrots.

There are two problems that really bother me.  The first is that I have doubted my ability to complete a 50 miler.  While this doubt has only creeped in a few times, it has made itself known.  While reviewing the training plan for next year I see that the 50 miler is only three weeks after a 50K training run. WHAT! There is no possible way I could have done that after Woodstock.  Maybe that is why I did not attempt it after Woodstock though, I knew I was not ready and did not want to over reach.  This doubt was enough to scare me and send me into a little panic, creating a 40 week training plan.  Can we say OVERKILL!?!?!? I have 11 months, that is plenty of time to take myself from 50k ready to 50 mile ready.  I really just need to relax and have started looking into coaching services to possibly help me out with some of the training and preparing.  The second problem is my road pace.  For the love of all things it takes everything I have to run a long run at a 9:09 pace which I could easily do back in May.  After talking with Justin at RUNDetroit this weekend it sounds like this is pretty normal, since I have been training to go long distances, walk up hills, etc. instead of the speed work and quick turnover.  This really made me think about the importance of keeping speed work or tempo runs a part of my training plan next time.  I wonder if that would help me maintain some of that speed?  I also would still like to crush a 2 hour 1/2 Marathon in the near future (planning on this goal for Rock CF in March), so I think speed work and tempos are a must.

Anyways I am taking the week off from running and just sticking to some Jillian Michaels and the elliptical.  Then it's a few short runs and my 4th Detroit International 1/2 Marathon!

How do you recover from a race?  Do you ever take time off from running?