MARATHON RECOVERY IDEAS
I am interrupting my series on "Use Your Brain" to address questions on Marathon Recovery, as some of us ran the extremely well organized and beautiful 2012 St. George Marathon yesterday. Figure out a way to get a bib for my fav race. The St. George folks knock it out of the park, year after year.
The glow of the marathon has worn off just a bit, and there you are in bed the next morning, and the floor seems a million miles away. Worse, the stairs may not be negotiable, especially if there was a lot of downhill pavement running.
The general and prevailing wisdom is to look at your taper schedule for the last 30 days to race, and do it in reverse. I'm ok with that, if you must, but my ideas, as usual, are a bit different, especially since I think most runners don't taper correctly. (If you read my blogs, you also know I disagree with most training schedules, and tapers, especially on long runs)
Who says you have to run, anyways?
Go back and read my blog July 18, 2011 Injuries: the Five Step Process, then come back here.
Ok, you just ran a marathon. You pushed everything to the limit. Recovery is now in order.
If you didn't injure on the course, now is a wonderful time to try to do so. Just crank up those miles right away.
Me?, I'll be goofing off for a while eating INnOut Double Doubles, Animal Style!
The studies I have read show biking/spinning, not rest or running, engender the fastest recovery. My own experience also supports this.
Weight lifting: Now's the time to add muscle back that your body ate the last 6 miles of the race.
Spinning: Don't go bonkers, or show off in class, just cruise for a few days and have fun, talk and tell stories.
Food: My rule is to eat whatever I want for a few weeks, I earned it! This will re charge your brain and your attitude too.
Running: Not much, my body is injured, time to heal.
Week One:
Day One after: hot showers, ibuprofen, easy walks and SPIN biking or flat cruising on the bike. If you didn't eat big yesterday, today's the day. Protein and fluids encouraged.
Day Two: For me, it's the SECOND day that hurts the most. If you've read my blogs about recovering from injury, you know I think the best way back up the ladder is to workout, then wait TWO days to see how you feel. Well, you INJURED your body on race day! so take two! Spin biking etc. ok for 20-40 minutes, low levels.
Enjoy the rest of the week, run how you feel, but keep miles SUPER low, like 6-10 MAX. for the WEEK.
No long run first weekend.
Week Two:
Same again, add some miles, but spin and crosstrain. Hit the weights, add back muscle your body ate to finish the race. No hard runs, no hard speed under any circumstances. Go long for 8 on Saturday IF YOU FEEL LIKE IT.
Week Three:
Ok to start racing 5k's, 10k's, just no PR's, and even a half IF YOU ADD 12 minutes. However, the third week in recovery is always miserable for me. I usually feel ok for two weeks, then it's as if my body says "not yet" in week three, and I struggle as my body reminds me I trashed it a mere 20 or so days ago.
and so on. Don't go OC. Remember, yo can't run from the bench or the doctor's office.
GENERAL NOTES:
I am interrupting my series on "Use Your Brain" to address questions on Marathon Recovery, as some of us ran the extremely well organized and beautiful 2012 St. George Marathon yesterday. Figure out a way to get a bib for my fav race. The St. George folks knock it out of the park, year after year.
The glow of the marathon has worn off just a bit, and there you are in bed the next morning, and the floor seems a million miles away. Worse, the stairs may not be negotiable, especially if there was a lot of downhill pavement running.
The general and prevailing wisdom is to look at your taper schedule for the last 30 days to race, and do it in reverse. I'm ok with that, if you must, but my ideas, as usual, are a bit different, especially since I think most runners don't taper correctly. (If you read my blogs, you also know I disagree with most training schedules, and tapers, especially on long runs)
Who says you have to run, anyways?
Go back and read my blog July 18, 2011 Injuries: the Five Step Process, then come back here.
Ok, you just ran a marathon. You pushed everything to the limit. Recovery is now in order.
If you didn't injure on the course, now is a wonderful time to try to do so. Just crank up those miles right away.
Me?, I'll be goofing off for a while eating INnOut Double Doubles, Animal Style!
The studies I have read show biking/spinning, not rest or running, engender the fastest recovery. My own experience also supports this.
Weight lifting: Now's the time to add muscle back that your body ate the last 6 miles of the race.
Spinning: Don't go bonkers, or show off in class, just cruise for a few days and have fun, talk and tell stories.
Food: My rule is to eat whatever I want for a few weeks, I earned it! This will re charge your brain and your attitude too.
Running: Not much, my body is injured, time to heal.
Week One:
Day One after: hot showers, ibuprofen, easy walks and SPIN biking or flat cruising on the bike. If you didn't eat big yesterday, today's the day. Protein and fluids encouraged.
Day Two: For me, it's the SECOND day that hurts the most. If you've read my blogs about recovering from injury, you know I think the best way back up the ladder is to workout, then wait TWO days to see how you feel. Well, you INJURED your body on race day! so take two! Spin biking etc. ok for 20-40 minutes, low levels.
Enjoy the rest of the week, run how you feel, but keep miles SUPER low, like 6-10 MAX. for the WEEK.
No long run first weekend.
Week Two:
Same again, add some miles, but spin and crosstrain. Hit the weights, add back muscle your body ate to finish the race. No hard runs, no hard speed under any circumstances. Go long for 8 on Saturday IF YOU FEEL LIKE IT.
Week Three:
Ok to start racing 5k's, 10k's, just no PR's, and even a half IF YOU ADD 12 minutes. However, the third week in recovery is always miserable for me. I usually feel ok for two weeks, then it's as if my body says "not yet" in week three, and I struggle as my body reminds me I trashed it a mere 20 or so days ago.
and so on. Don't go OC. Remember, yo can't run from the bench or the doctor's office.
GENERAL NOTES:
- The RACE INJURY SHADOW is really dangerous for the first 3 weeks. If you injure out at weeks 4, 5 or 6, look back at your frisky schedule in the first 3 weeks, you prolly came back too fast.
- The RACE SHADOW itself can last 8-12 weeks or more. PR's are 12 weeks for sure. Downhill races, also 12 weeks. This means no hard speedwork, no high miles, no long runs, just have the patience to let your body recover. Re establish your training routine, but at a lower level than prior to the race. Re read "Injuries, the Five Step Process" again, to remind yourself not to ask too much of your body. The marathon is not a workout, it's an INSULT to your body. Treat it as such!
- CROSSTRAIN in the shadow. You lost muscle, add it back. You lost your mental edge, enjoy life and replenish. You stressed body parts, let them heal. Spinning/biking is an excellent way to add blood flow without stressing running parts, allows them to heal, yet keeps aerobic capacity up, and burns calories so you don't balloon out. Weightlifting reasonable amounts of weights can re set body tone lost on the taper. If you want to recover faster in the future, add weight training to your schedule long before your marathon date.
- Beginner marathoners will take WAY longer to recover than veterans. PR's will also require seemingly geometrically longer times to recover. Downhill pavement races also require extra time, and are painful for days after the race.
- If a 3:30 marathoner runs a 3:45 race, recovery is very fast, but if that same runner squeezes out at 3:25, the recovery time can double, or even triple over the 3:45 run. That's why I preach every marathon need not be a PR! Here's a concept..... run a marathon and make running a negative split the primary focus, 15 minutes slower overall time... it will make you a way mo betta runner in the long run.
- If you still don't run NEGATIVE SPLITS like I preach herein, your recovery time will be longer, as will the race shadow for injuries. (I snuck in a 4 minute negative split for my first BQ on my new knee at St. Geo. yesterday :>))
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