Today's workout:

Thank you all for your congratulations and your awesome advice in the comments on my last post. I am taking the advice to heart and plan to run a similar buildup for my next marathon, but work on increasing the paces slightly and perhaps doing a few more miles at marathon pace. I haven't yet picked my fall marathon, but I'm hoping to aim to do one in mid-to-late September.

As I look back on Tobacco Road, I feel very blessed and thankful that I was able to get to that starting line healthy and ready to race. I am also so thankful that I was able to come back strong from my stress fracture and not only race at my pre-injury level, but go beyond that and set a PR. I truly believe now that taking my time to come back slowly post-fracture was the best thing I did. Between that and the strength work/PT exercises I did along the way I think I gave myself the best shot for a strong season. So if you are suffering from a serious injury now, don't lose hope! It's definitely possible to come back as strong (or stronger!) than you were prior to injury. Just be smart about your comeback and you'll be set.

As you can tell from my picture, this week has been all about recovery and enjoying my post-marathon downtime. I've been sleeping in (well, as much as one can sleep in with a just-turned-3 year old) and enjoying getting dressed in normal-people clothes. (while realizing that I think I own more gym clothes than I do regular clothes. Oops.) I've not run single step this past week. Instead I've hung out with my family, celebrated my daughter's 3rd birthday, eaten foods that I'd normally limit (chips and dip for lunch!! Yum!!) and just CHILLED OUT. It's been really nice! But....I'm actually itching to get back to my normal running schedule. I feel best when I'm training and fueling my body with higher quality foods. It's been fun this week to relax the diet and not worry too much about what I'm eating - that's definitely been a great mental break - but I can definitely tell that I've been eating more processed/sugary foods than normal!

No real workouts last week for me, though I did do half of a core work class and half of a BodyPump class to ease back into it. I'll be teaching BodyPump this week so I figure I'd better get my muscles back in shape at some point! With a little extra time on my hands since I'm not running, I've been working on learning the new release - BodyPump 93! It's a great workout and I'm excited to teach it. I've had to practice with very light weights though as my legs still have some lingering fatigue from the race.

This week it's back on the healthy food bandwagon, and adding back in BodyPump and core work. I'm taking at least one more week off running, but will likely add in some elliptical or cycling this week to get the legs moving again without the impact. I can still feel a bit of tendonitis in my foot so I want to make sure I give it another week or so before I hit the roads again. I'm itching to get back out there now that the weather has improved, but I know that taking the time off now will pay dividends later.

Hope everyone had a great week!

What's your favorite post-marathon indulgence?

How long do you take off before resuming training? (I usually go with 2-4 weeks of no running)