4-day Marathon Recovery

I do believe I will look back at this time and think, "what was I thinking?" and... "how did I do that?"

Well, Dubai happens to be a land o Type A personalities where everyone is always pushing the limits and just always up to that next challenge.

Being that this year is to be my "ultra" year, it seemed time to step up to these challenges myself and practice running on tird legs. The sad (good?) thing is, what I did is considered 'normal' among my running friends. So either I have crazy friends, or.... well, actually, I do think it is crazy that what I did is considered normal.

What am I talking about?

Here it is:

Sunday: Mumbai Marathon
Mon-Thursday - Recovery
Friday: Dubai Marathon

Yup, 2 marathons within 5 days. Eek! Will describe Dubai marathon in a bit, but this post will be all about that brief recovery period.

To be fair, I do admit that with each marathon I do, the recovery does seem to be better and better, not to say I have EVER even tempted to run a lot after marathons, nevertheless another marathon, but here were my keys to success:

• SLEEP! SLEEP! SLEEP!!! This is sooooooooooooooooooooooo important and the KEY to RECOVERY!!!! I got 7 ish hours that first night after the run and when returned to Dubai, but every night after that it was between 8-10 hours, no joke. It was awesome and .... can't say enough how important it is to help with neuromuscular fatigue AND muscle repair. 
• Compression gear - I pretty much wore my compression socks and shorts all week. My quads (my right especially) were the most sore, and the rest was, well, just thought it would be helpful.
• Food: I loaded up on kiwi and vitamin C to make sure I wouldn't get sick, so had my green juices in the mornings and yet again went to higher protein and carb food intake the first couple of days, then went to more carbs the next couple of days. I usually (try) and do a high good fat and protein diet and then carb load 2-3 days before, but this week was all off, but that's basically what I did. 
• I didn't do any exercises until Thursday when I did an easy 5km jog and then a 20 min loosening up swim. Have to admit that ALL systems were a go... except for that R quad, which made me nervous a bit, to be honest. Felt it during the Mumbai marathon, felt my R gait off a bit (??) and shortly thereafter, the vastus lateralis fired up and although ti kinda worked itself out during the run, it still remained sore. I did kinesotape it and wore those quad compression shorts all week. Besides that, the legs actually felt okay! 
• Had 1 x physio appt for soft tissue releases and 1 x chiro appt to keep the 'ol body aligned and in check!
• Tried this Oxygen chamber thing, as per recommended by my friend that does 7 marathons in 7 continents in 7 days and that runs through all 7 emirates in 7 days (yes, he's crazy). My legs went in the chamber thing and.... to be honest, the first time didn't feel much, it kind of pulled up on my pelvis and felt air on my legs and was thinking, "la de la, this is a waste of time and money" (sorry, no offense to him). The 2nd time I guess was tired because fell asleep a little and I guess my legs felt "lighter," (which he said they would (is that a bias?). My friend Liz also did it and she too was ?? about it. So who knows if it actually worked or didn't work, but hey ho, was kinda fun to try! 
• Mentally stayed focused. The week went by super quick and just tried to stay calm and not panic or get anxious about running another marathon in such a short time. Tried to stay positive and keep mentally fresh. 

Then... blink! The next thing I knew, it was back to the starting line....