I have been extremely pleased with my recovery from Sunday’s marathon. It’s been night and day difference from my first marathon. I attribute it to better overall fitness and my body being more accustomed to recovering from tough workouts.

All of my soreness faded by Tuesday and now I’m just dealing with general fatigue and feeling run down. Despite getting eight hours of sleep last night, I literally had to peel myself out of bed this morning. In addition to feeling physically exhausted, I’ve been a bit emotional. This is nothing new for me – anytime I push myself to the point of exhaustion the tears come much more easily. All I have to say is poor Mom and poor Brandon. Love you guys! 😉

I took Monday and Tuesday as complete rest days and decided to make my way back to my yoga mat this evening. It had been a week since I practiced – the longest I’ve gone in many, many months. I was mentally ready but my body was NOT ready. Within five minutes of class starting my legs were shaking. This is partly my fault for choosing to go to a hot vinyasa class rather than a more relaxed, stetching-focused class. I toughed it out and took lots of breaks. I was planning on an ashtanga class tomorrow but I have to teach BodyPump too so I think I’m going to wait a few more days before I attempt ashtanga since it’s a pretty physical practice.

And one last note on recovery. I honestly didn’t know if and when I would run after the marathon. I was planning on taking a couple weeks off of running and then most of the winter off after the Thunder Road half in December. I already miss it. I totally did not see this coming. I am definitely first and foremost a runner but this last year I’ve felt a little over it and discovering yoga has helped me see that I don’t have to run all the time. But I realize now that training for and running the Marine Corps Marathon actually helped me fall back in love with running.

And enough about all that…I haven’t taken many food photos the last couple days but here are a couple from today.

Brandon and I grabbed a quick lunch at Panera.

I had the You Pick Two with vegetable soup, a salad and whole wheat baguette.

For some reason that I do not understand, I had a serious biscuit craving. It was so bad that I considered stopping at Bojangles yesterday but then I really thought hard about that and it didn’t seem like such a good idea. Instead, we had breakfast for dinner tonight.

I had an egg, a Morningstar “sausage” patty, cheese grits and a biscuit. I covered the biscuit in Trader Joe’s pumpkin butter and it was blissful. Everything I was hoping for and more! 😀

And last…we’re FINALLY getting a Whole Foods in Charlotte! WOOOHOO!!! There has been a void in my life since we left Birmingham where we had a Whole Foods just a mile from our house. When I had a hard day at work, I would stop there and just wander around to boost my mood. I know, I’m crazy. Bring on the hot bar and the 365 brand!