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Post marathon I didn't have an exact plan regarding my recovery. I just went with the concept that I should know my body well enough by now to do what was required to recover. Also at the back of my mind, I didn't want to detrain to the extent that I felt like I was restarting. There was a bit of hope of being able to take some fitness gains from the marathon itself. At this stage I don't know how much of that I have achieved.

Since the marathon itself I have only done whatever I feel like and nothing of what I don't. The only other criteria I put on myself was to stay clear of any sustained threshold style running. Currently that is something that really eats into my recovery abilities. So over the last couple of weeks I have got in a couple of weights sessions, a swim, a few very low intensity runs of up to an hour, one 2 hour easy run and two sessions of very short and fast intervals.

Every few days I've noticed an increase in energy. The aches and tightness of the connective tissues is easing. The muscles have loosened enough that I am starting to recognise which spots took a beating over the 42km. The most significant is my left VMO, just superior to the knee. It is a muscle I tore years ago in a half ironman race, but haven't had any problems since. A bit of concentrated rehabilitation work will be required to prevent this from causing trouble.

Structured training will begin from next Sunday. I will start with the local 10km Eltham Fun Run. It should provide an honest test of the state my body is in. From there I can work out exactly where I need to start.