At the time I am writing this, two weeks have passed since the Grindstone 50k. If you're coming off your first ultra, or thinking about one, here's the short version: everything recovered on schedule except one thing, and that one thing set the schedule for everything else.

The race recap left off the morning after the race, with going downstairs still a problem. That lasted most of the week.

Stairs were the worst of it, in both directions. Then standing up. Then sitting down, which I had never considered an athletic event. Everything else felt fine. Just the quads.

What I did about it wasn't much. Some light massage, some light stretching, short walks to keep the blood moving. Mostly I stayed off them.

By Wednesday I wanted to run, so I ran. 4.4 easy miles Wednesday, 4.4 more on Thursday. Quads tight both days.

Thursday settled it. I spent the rest of that day feeling like I had a charley horse in each leg. Not for a few minutes. All day.

The watch agreed. Those two runs came in at 8:02 and 8:13 per mile, slower than anything I've run since, with average heart rates of 162 and 163. My average heart rate for the entire 50k was 132.

So I stopped. Friday through Sunday off, walks only.

The alarm still went off early. I just skipped the run. Coffee, the couch, and an hour of reading before anyone else in the house was awake. It turned out to be a really nice alternative to the morning run.

I started back the following Monday and ran every day this week. Easy four to six miles. Everything felt fine.

The numbers took a few days longer than my legs did. Monday's 6.2 miles at 7:31 pace still averaged 161. By Thursday, the same 7:31 pace averaged 143. Wednesday came in at 131, within a beat of what I averaged during the race itself.

You'll probably feel okay sooner than you expect. That doesn't mean your body is ready to run. I felt ready by Wednesday and spent Thursday with two charley horses.

Rest. Relax. Give it a full week, regardless of how you feel.

The physical stuff faded. The other part went the other direction.

The more I think about the race, the prouder I am of how it went. People keep asking about it. I keep telling them it was super hard, and that I'd do it all over again. Both are true.

Even the low points were good. At one point I turned a corner onto what looked like an endless hill. I was walking it, waiting on the next aid station, and there was a guy standing there taking pictures. I looked up at him and smiled. I still had the whole hill to climb. But the aid station was close, and I knew it.

That moment is a fair summary of the day. I went in treating it as a day out in the woods, and that's what it was. It was refreshing.

I'm sad it's over.

The quads are much better now, which leaves me somewhere I haven't been in a while: no plan. For most of this year every run had a place in a training block. Right now I don't really know what I'm doing.

The next step is unglamorous. A base building or maintenance block to keep the miles up, and strength training back in the rotation.

After that, the next race. I'm eyeing the Burning River 50 miler. It's close to home, and it's a step up from the 50k, which is the next challenge I want to try. The timing works too. Our fall is already spoken for with vacations, and Burning River lands in a gap between the kids' sports seasons.

Nothing's decided. First, the base.

Written two weeks after the Grindstone 50k.