Why Didn't I Listen?

I don't know why I've never followed the advice of people who clearly know more than me when it comes to recovering from a race. My M.O. has always been spending the entire day after a race lounging on the couch and whining about how sore I am. Then I continue to feel crappy for the next several days during which I am motivated to do absolutely nothing. I always assumed people who did recovery rides were "hardcore."

What I finally realized after the Ithaca race is that those people are just smart. I pushed myself to do more miles at Ithaca than I was really in shape for. As a result, I was hurting pretty badly. On Sunday, I really wanted to lie in bed all day, but I didn't. I forced myself to go on a recovery ride—about 40 minutes on the River Trail, going really slow. And even though my butt was protesting and my legs were tired, it really wasn't that bad.

Monday when I woke up, my legs were still sore, especially when I was going up and down stairs at work, but not nearly as bad as the day before. I was supposed to do a group ride at after work at Burchfield and I was a bit worried. Somehow, though, my legs were pretty much back to normal by the end of the day. I was still a bit slow during the group ride, but I was actually in decent shape. I guess this active recovery stuff really does work.