If you look to the past, you have just completed a marathon and deserve a good recovery. If you look to the future, you are 3 to 4 weeks away from a marathon and you should be reaching the hardest weeks of training before tapering. See the dilemma here? With one every month these two scenarios are incompatible. But if you think a little bit more, you’ll get convinced that the recovery plan makes more sense. You can’t possibly peak at all 12 marathons. If you were planning something similar, as a coach I would tell you: focus on some key events and face the other marathons as long training runs. In my case, I don’t even know if I want to peak at any of them. I still have my triathlon goals and I’m just trying to fit everything in. My goal with the marathons is to make them special so that people get involved and support cancer research.

I’ve just been through my very first recovery week and I thought it would be worth sharing. It was more interesting than it sounds. Be prepared for lots of photos!

With so little time between consecutive marathons, the recovery needs to be quick and efficient. I can’t afford to have a long break. So, let me start with the plan to then tell what really happened. With the race on Saturday, my plan was to go to the pool on Sunday for a light swim and then go for a walk for a few kilometers. Then a rest day on Monday followed by an easy flat run on Tuesday. Wednesday was still a question mark: either resting again or another light run depending on how I felt. On Thursday I would be taking the early bus to Barcelona to fly back to Australia. My arrival in Sydney was scheduled for 5:00 am on Saturday and I was expecting to do a medium distance easy run on Sunday. This last run was intended to be the point where my mind should switch from “relax, you just finished a marathon” to “get ready for the next one!”

Just after the “finish line” (there wasn’t really one) I did the usual: walk, stretch, drink, eat, repeat. Lots of repeats. This marathon had also lots of talking as the friends wanted to know how it all went. It had beer, something that is not offered after normal races, and also had the special “mountain pack” prepared by Miguelón from “El Laminero“, a local bakery from Benasque. The pack included a big “bocata de jamón” (should have taken a photo…), some pastries (including a chocolate croissant) and a big bag of cherries. Do I have to say again that this is not offered after official races? 🙂

After enough of the walk/stretch/drink/eat repeats ,we had to walk back to the car that was parked at Hospital de Benasque (if you are a bit lost, check the post on the race). I learned the hard way that keeping your legs moving after a long race is a great way to avoid severe muscle soreness the day after. After my first two marathons I made the mistake to crash on the couch just after the much needed post-marathon shower. The results? I could barely stand on my legs afterwards, let alone walk. This time I had no option, so I walked another 4 km to the car and the restaurant where we had lunch.

For the next day the group had the plan to hike to the Portillon de Banasque and cross to the French side of the Pyrenees. I had done this hike in 2011 and wanted to do it again. So, I told them that, legs allowing, I’d join them. Sunday morning and I was feeling great. No signs that I had completed a tough marathon the day before. I was pleasantly surprised. Let’s go hiking!

We drove to Hospital de Benasque, the starting point for many of the hikes in the region, and there we met Maciej, another physicist from the workshop, and his sons Jan, Patrick, and Julien. The boys were about to start their hike up to peak of Salvaguardia. The Portillon was on the way so we went up together. I’ll let the photos do the talk about our way to the Portillon at 2444 m of altitude.

When you cross to the French side you are rewarded with the impressive view of these lakes. Down there we stopped to eat and have a beer at the Refuge de Vénasque. Terra and I had our bocatas from Miguelón’s mountain pack while Ruynet and Barbara decided to try the local soup.

After that, a quick check on the water temperature. Terra and I had a swim there four years ago but there was much, much less snow. It was tempting to repeat the feat…

The legs were a bit sore the day after, but not much. On Tuesday, as planned, I went for a light run. 10km and I felt great. On the same day I played (against the recommendations of the physio due to a recurring hip flexor injury) a football match with the other participants in the conference. The 7 pm football is already a tradition in Benasque and I couldn’t leave without scoring a goal! 😛

Since nutrition is also crucial to a good recovery, after the game I paid another visit to the restaurant Ansils, my all-time favourite! Bold claim? Maybe, but what can you say of a place where even the scrambled eggs leaves you speechless? I’ll finish the post in the same way I finished my dinner, with the best dessert ever: “la sopa de chocolate blanco” (white chocolate soup).