How do you recover after a marathon?

Question

Aliphine Tuliamuk · Answer

That actually is a great question. And it definitely applies to me because I am still recovering from my New York City Marathon from three weeks ago. So for us, we usually take two weeks off completely not running. And I took two weeks of this time around, and then I started running. I ran the first time two days in a row, and then took a day off, and then actually ran every other day. So right now, we are in the middle of week four since I run the New York City Marathon. And I've only ran five times. Now, I will say that typically, it's just a two weeks off and then start running maybe like the whole week, everyday running four miles, or two every other day. And also I try to just do things that are not running related like take a vacation, go visit family and friends, and get massages and try to rest as much as I can. And I mean, resting from a marathon or recovering from marathon is not just physical. It's also mental. So I will try to do things that doesn't attacks me mentally. And I mean, that's a little challenging these days as a mom just because my daughter is always needing me. And so I try my best to recover. But yeah. I think the first couple of days, actually when I got home, I literally didn't even get out of the house. Now, I'm not saying that that's normal. But that's what I decided to do just because I was super tired, and it been like a very intense five weeks of training leading up to New York City Marathon. I also tend to watch a lot of movies during my recovery. And a couple of years ago, I started crocheting. And I didn't really have a lot of time when I was training for my marathon. So I started getting back to crocheting. So I made a few beanies during my recovery, watched a lot of movies. And so it's been just fun to just have a downtime. And I'm actually still having downtime for the rest of this month, I mean, until four weeks just because a marathon takes a lot out of you. And I want to make sure that when I get back to my next marathon, I'm motivated physically. I'm ready to go. Because it's going to be a long build.

Kate Edwards, PT, DPT, OCS · Answer

Hi everybody. Kate Edwards here. And the question that I'm answering is, how do you recover after a marathon? And so there are a lot of things that are part of recovery, when I think of recovery. I think of physical rest, mental, rest, sleep nutrition. Hydration, muscle, flexibility, and strength. So directly after a marathon, what I would say is you want to really refuel yourself. So make sure you're giving your body really, Good food, good food for inflammation and Recovery, there's different recipes you can get for that. Make sure that you're getting plenty of sleep. So at least seven to nine hours, a night of sleep, you're replacing your fluids, you're doing, gentle stretches, nothing really stressful and then walking or moving. You have to move your body after Rick after a marathon and then also you can do things like you can do recovery boots if that's something you want to do. Or a massage, those types of things are all really good recovery tools. If you have a massage gun, that's really good as well. But whatever you do, make sure it's something that feels good to you and that doesn't stress you out. The other thing I want to say is that you don't want to recover, just after a marathon. Make sure that you are adding recovery to all of your training and you have a specific day a week, where you really focus on recovery, perhaps the day after a long run and then also add little bits of Recovery after every training session so that might just look like making sure you get seven to nine hours of sleep or that you're eating meals, that will really replenish your system. I hope this helps

Deena Kastor · Answer

Recovery after a marathon is so critical because you want to go into the next training cycle, really healthy. So for me, recovery consists of taking a physical and mental break for up to a month, I think. Now, with the new Super Shoes, it doesn't really have to be that long, the foam technology doesn't really allow your legs and Joints to be as damaged as much as in the past. So I would still take two to three weeks off, if not a month and really just connect with friends and family that you don't get to connect with. Because of the discipline of training, stick your feet in the sand and don't feel like you have to move really just getting off of that routine is so important allows you to refresh and come back and really focus for the next time around.

Meb Keflezighi · Answer

The key to life and to get to the marathon is all about preparation. I think getting to a marathon, the key is to prepare to the best you can. And how you recover from that becomes the result of all your hard work. If you worked hard and done the work as much as you can, you're going to get to the finish line as strong. But how do you recover from that is also important because if you hit the wall on mile 17, you struggle for the 9 miles, the recovery is going to be difficult. But if you hit the wall on mile 20 or 24, it will be easier because you toughened it out for 3 miles or 4 miles. Now the recovery will be a lot easier. So I do a lot of ice baths. I've done the past. Soft tissue massage and stretching. I always use U-can. Also sports drinks right away, immediately. And I think just being able to put Epsom salt and Normatec. A few other things that you can do to help you recover faster. A marathon is a challenge. Your body just went to the maximum demand of it. And how you recover is doing the small things that make a big difference even though you might not feel like it. So you have to recover. And protein is very important as well.

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"How do you recover after a marathon? "