Here’s what I’ve done since the Steamtown Marathon:

• Cold bath (not ice, can’t handle ice) a few hours after.
• Some foam rolling and then a short swim the next morning.
• Right back into my pushups/planks/myrtls routine three days a week.
• Back to climbing within a few days, but taking it easy at first.
• Easy 2-mile run three days after the race and another one, similar distance, the following day.
• Tons of biking (like 50+ miles) the weekend after the race (this wasn’t really planned; it just happened, and I wouldn’t recommend it).

That was week 1 of recovery: 4 miles of easy running but a lot of non-running activities toward the end of the week. I ate ravenously on Tuesday, my quads hurt until Wednesday, and then I felt fine.

Week 2 featured increased running mileage:

• Easy 4 miles Monday morning, easy 5 miles Tuesday morning (both with friends, yay!).
• Speedwork at the track Wednesday evening: 1 mile warmup, 6×400 with 2 minutes rest between, 1 mile cooldown, and biking to/from. This was awesome but totally wore me out – I haven’t run serious track speedwork for months. Took Thursday and Friday off from running to let my legs adjust to the new reality.
• 1.5 hour climbing hard Thursday morning, plus more climbing Saturday and Sunday.
• 6-mile trail run in the park on Saturday. Woohoo! Awesome. Muddy. Hard work.
• Tons of sleep.

So week 2 of recovery was 18.5 miles of running, plus lots of biking, climbing, and strength work.

I’m registered for a trail half-marathon in 3 weeks so I’ll see if I can (carefully) ramp up to that. I’ll wait until just before the race, though, to decide whether I’m trying for a PR or just taking it as an easy long run through the woods. Both sound appealing. I have a basic schedule put together for the rest of the year: pretty much four days of running a week, including speedwork or hills on Wednesdays and a long run each weekend.