You know, after reading your post, I realized that in a lot of training materials (books and such) that I've read, they focus a lot on how to train, how to taper, what to do on race day, what to do DURING the race, but they don't tell you what's next. How do you eat in recovery? How do you keep your fitness level but still recover? How do you avoid overworking yourself too soon, but avoid the depression that can come with not working out at all?

I ran a half marathon on memorial day weekend (which seems short when we're talking Ironman ) -- usually when I do longer training runs (or bricks), which for running either way right now is 8-15 miles, I take the day before and the day after off, and pace myself pretty well. Before the HM, I took two days off. During the HM, I pushed a little harder than training days, especially in the last couple of miles, and the entire experience totally drained me. I tried taking 2 days off and running my normal path (even less) and I was useless. Totally useless. I couldn't even get my heart rate up my muscles were so sad. It was like that all week, and I still hurt all of last week in my knees/ankles/shins (part of the HM course was at a slope, argh). Finally, today, I feel like I'm over almost all of the signs... and it's been two weeks. I checked in a couple of books I had, and nobody told me to EXPECT this

I hope to do an Iron(wo)Man someday, especially after reading your guys' stories and thoughts. I look forward to reading Tri Girl's success story -- just training and mentally committing is a success in and of itself

PS, Tri Girl, when's the race?