Your Race is Over. Now What? Time to Recover
You did it! You crossed the finish line! You just accomplished a feat that far too few will even dare to imagine. You just did something totally awesome!!!
Now that the race is over, particularly for you half and full marathoners, it’s time to focus on recovery. After all, it’s highly unlikely you just ran your last race. You’re not going to just hand over your library card and stop being a runner. So, whether you just knocked out a personal best or barely staggered across the finish line, it’s important to have a plan in place to take care of yourself, so you can soon get back to getting after it!
Phase One: 0 to 24 hours
Refuel, Rehydrate, Repair
Immediately after crossing the finish line, go for high carbohydrate drinks and sources of protein and complex sugars. Replenish fluids and energy stores and make available to your tissues the amino acids necessary to kick start tissue repair. Think Gatorade, Chocolate Milk, Bananas, Oranges, PB&J
Get off your feet and reflect on your awesomeness, all the while giving an assist to your circulation. Inflammation in your tissues after doing hard work, and running a long ways IS hard work, is normal, healthy, and necessary for initiating tissue repair. Let it do it’s thing and don’t interfere by doing things like “cool-down jogging” and “ice baths”. Manage swelling, which is different from inflammation, and can be a source of discomfort and a detriment to tissue healing, by elevating your feet and using compression wear. A little light foam rolling may also be helpful, but don’t get too carried away.
Limit the alcohol. Believe me, it kills me to say this. What better way to celebrate your awesomeness than with a cold beer! But alcohol dehydrates and distracts your metabolism from what it should be focusing on, repair. Eat and drink healthy nutrients that will continue to fuel recovery.
Sleep. You need it.
Phase Two: Days 2 and 3
Recover
Continue to focus on rehydrating and eating well, and get good quality, and quantity, sleep.
Your body’s process of repairing muscle and other tissues continues to be in high gear. To support this process, work to get the blood flowing a little bit and continue to manage swelling by using elevation and compression, while easing some movement into your day with light walks or an easy bike ride. If you have access to a pool for water walking or some structured “floating,” fantastic. A light massage may also be in order!
Stay away from running.
I repeat, stay away from running.
If you did manage to sustain an injury during the race, here you might start to gain a better understanding of what exactly happened, which leads to figuring out what you may need to do to get things getting better. This is when it’s nice to know a good PT! In fact, here’s one!
Phase Three: Days 4-7
Starting to Feel Better
Continue to focus on recovery. As you start to feel better, you may feel inclined to go for a run. It’s just so damn addictive! Hold off a little bit longer.
Continue to push fluids.
Find easy physical activity throughout your day and listen to your body! Let the repair continue. Stick with the walks, cycling, or swimming.
Phase Four: Weeks 2-4
Ease into It
Slowly reintroduce intensity into your workouts by listening to your body and how you feel. If soreness and fatigue accompany an activity, back off a bit the next day. Cross-training here can be quite useful as you look to ease back into running. As you start to feel better, and begin thinking about that next race down the road, take time to reflect on your training and performance in the last race. Identify areas that might need greater focus in when training for that next race, so you can keep on running on. Because running is AWESOME!