Guide to a successful marathon recovery

Congratulations, Take a bow!! You ran 42.195km and IT IS A BIG DEAL!

Regardless of the amount of training you had put in for months, whichever schedule you have adhered to for accomplishing your goal, whosoever expert opinion you have taken to prepare yourself for a marathon, you could be a Boston qualifier or a SCMM rock star, the bottom line sounds like a universal truth: You have pushed your body to its extreme limits on the race day and your body has undergone tremendous physical duress and the body needs to recuperate from it. The most important component of marathon running which cannot be bypassed is: RECOVERY

A diagrammatic representation to show marathon impacts on the body

Proper recovery from a marathon sets the foundation for your upcoming races and varies from person to person but it averages to a week or two at the least. As important as it is to recover physically from it, the mental recovery is that important too. Jotting down the mistakes made by you during a marathon and working on them in your next races makes you more aware of your improvement areas. Jumping immediately into training or racing after a marathon could be in lot of cases be injury prone and could risk your long term running potential. Take it easy and give those muscles some time to bounce back to full strength. Till then take pride in your achievement and enjoy active rest.

Here are a few quick recovery tips that you can incorporate in your Post Marathon Recovery- Plan of Action:

1. Recovery begins the minute you cross that finish line. Keep moving and sip some water. Forget about the tiring legs and congratulate yourself and your fellow runners. Hug your best friend.
2. Keep sipping, preferably a replacement drink such as Gatorade (Refueling works best if done immediately after exercise, when the body is eager to absorb energy).
3. To avoid the post race chills, change in to some clean, dry, warm clothes.
4. Step into a pair of clean socks, supported shoes which have plenty of room to accommodate your newly swollen feet.
5. Take a stroll, walk at least for a mile, hang out in the event area which is equivalent to the cool down after a long distance run.
6. Do little stretching, muscle soreness will anyways persist the next day. However, stretching your legs makes you feel good and the intensity of soreness little bearable the other day.
7. Refuel yourself while you are still on your toes- Bananas, energy bars, fruits, sports drinks etc. are good options. Consuming fluids and easily digestable foods helps the body to adequately rehydrate and gain back on the lost nutrients.
8. If you see that you have sustained those painful blisters or you are suffering from a muscle cramp or any sort of injury, please visit the medical tent and seek out help.
9. After getting back to the room, submerge your lower body into cold water tub. Take a cold water shower.
10. Take a nap or walk around and loosen your legs and have a good lunch rich in carbohydrates.
11. The day after, plan on a recovery run/ jog/ brisk walking for 10-20 min or ride a bike, swim or do some sort of aerobic activity to loosen up the muscles.
12. Relish a hot water shower and eat lots of fruits and carbohydrate and protein rich food.
13. Treat yourself with a light massage, 24 to 48 hours after the marathon; is when it works the best.

Effectively, the recovery period ranges from a week to 20 days for getting back in good shape and ready to start attacking the workouts and planning the races, all depending upon an individual and hence should be planned according to how your body responds and should be chalked out with the help of your personal coach. The point to be borne in head is to eat healthy, rest actively and slowly getting back to training.

Good Luck with many more those marathons lined up ahead of you.

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