The importance of Recovery Time

I am sitting here a exactly a week after my first triathlon and I am utterly exhausted - STILL!  Part of it was because the week I had following my Saturday race.  It goes like this:

Saturday afternoon:


I took the kids to the beach while mom took a nap.  I laid there on a blanket and didn't move for about two hours.  I think people wondered if I was dead or possibly needed to be rolled back into the water.

Sunday:


NC Aquarium!  These are my actual children, Wil & Zaine.  After this, I was wadded up in the front seat of a car for 3.5 hours.  I was stiff when we got home.  I had to do laundry and pack Sunday night.

Monday:

"Since it's so damn early, we probably haven't had THAT much to drink!" said my Delta pilots.
At 3:30am Monday morning, I got up for my 6am flight to Florida where I was teaching a one-day balloon seminar. 

This is how many balloons needed to be inflated for my pre-class prep on Monday.

This was this problem: I had gripped my handlebars SO tightly that my hands did not work.  I couldn't tie balloons so I had to enlist the help of the sales rep.  This resulted in slower work effort, meaning I was on my feet from 11am to 5pm.  Back at the hotel, my hands were too weak to open the plastic on the soap.  It was very sad (and dirty) indeed.

Tuesday:

Here's one of the things we made in class - it's an 8ft Awareness Ribbon.
I got up at 5:30am and got back to the hotel at 7pm - on my feet all day!

Wednesday:


Back home!  Up at 5am for a 7:45 flight.

Straight from the airport to carpool pick up for the kids. Then dinner, homework & bed.

Thursday:


Up at 6am to get the kids ready for school.  Carpool in between periods of vegetation.

Friday:

Ok, this was actually fun, but I was freaking exhausted by Friday night.
http://www.wideopenbluegrass.com/

Saturday:
I did sleep in until 8:30am this morning, which is a huge feat!  Today was supposed to be for carting the kids around with friends, but it looks like that has been put off until tomorrow.  A week later, I can honestly look back and say I am proud and exited to have completed the triathlon.  In fact, I feel a little like this:

Hopefully tomorrow I will have enough energy to pick up my own pug and do this exact same thing.

In an effort to provide real information, I did do some reading online about recovery times.  I found this article, which I thought was helpful: http://beta.active.com/triathlon/articles/determining-your-race-recovery-time-877436.  Most info says 6-10 days before you're feeling like your old self, so I have a few more days I can milk this and sit around.  I do plan to go back to the gym on Monday.  I will be looking at training plans for the Raleigh Ironman 70.3 so I am better prepared, but before then, I have a half marathon in November.  I was going to do one in mid-October, but I don't know if I will.  I was racing for time to get bumped up in corrals on the WDW full marathon (deadline for submitting times is in October) but I just don't know if I have the speed to do it.  I will re-evaluate after next week.