Marathon Recovery: Find What Works for You (plus some other cool stuff you should really check out)

From the second you cross the finish line of a marathon (or half marathon), the process of recovery has already begun.  It is important to keep moving once you finish a long distance race.  You will rest easier later in the day if you are moving an hour or two after finishing the race.  It is also important to eat, and eat right!  When I finished the Cox Marathon, I kept moving.  I found where the food was, found my family, and we walked (slowly) around Providence.  I like to take in a sports drink after a longer race and for food something like a bagel or banana works well.  This is the first stage to successful recovery so that you can move forward to your next race.  I then like to run the day following a half marathon or marathon.  This is called a shake-out run and it can do wonders.  It follows the same concept of doing an easier second run (later in the afternoon or at night) after doing a workout or long run the same morning.  I ran three miles, at an easy pace, and I would like to think it helped to get rid of that dead leg feeling I was experiencing.  Now comes the point in recovery that most people would have no problem with.  After a long distance race, there are many opinions moving around in the running community about how many rest days to take completely off.  After the Olympic Marathon Trials in January, Ryan Hall (American record holder) took three weeks completely off from running.  He did some lighter cross-training for fitness, but did not run.  Josh Cox reccomends taking two complete weeks off from training.  He then goes through two easy weeks of running before resuming regular training.  I have even heard that you should take one day off for each mile of the race you completed.  Twenty-six miles seems like a lot of time away from the sport for me!  Here's what I did.  After the shake-out run, I took the next two days completely off.  I then ran easy at the end of the week after my marathon.  On the Sunday following my marathon I ran 10 miles at a 6:53 pace.  I closely monitored how I felt this week and did not push my pace in any of my runs.  The following week, I put in 70 miles and two track workouts.  Then, I put in another week of 70 miles, track workouts, and a 5k race.  I felt strong in all of my workouts and in the race too.  My conclusion is to find what works for you and stick with it.  I'm sure I would have felt great after a whole week or two weeks completely off from running.  I just could not bring myself to take more than a couple days off.  I knew this would be fine because I listened to my body and would not have kept training if I was feeling any pain.  The bottom line is to take things easy when recovering from a long distance race.  If you have any lingering injuries, wait for them to heal before picking up your training again.  While many reccomend taking several weeks completely off, you do not have to do this if it does not work for you.  Keep these principles in mind and you will come back fresh after your big race!

Trying to Get Faster:

My summer training is focused on speed work.  I want to get faster, and get to a level where I can really begin to compete.  My thought is that if I can get my shorter distance race (5k/10k) times faster, then my marathon time will drop too.  I want to contend in my fall marathon and know that summer training will be essential to achieving this goal.  In the past couple weeks, I did a few workouts to prepare for a 5k that may work for you too.  The first was a track workout that I would consider a staple in my training.  It is called the Drop-Down.  Run 2 x 1000m (5k pace), 2 x 400m (mile pace), then 2 x 200m (all out).  You can then repeat this if you haven't had enough yet.  This teaches your body to run faster and works on foot turnover (very important for marathon training).  I also did a classic 4 x 1 mile workout on the roads.  I hit my splits in 6:02. 5:54, 5:56, 5:54, while taking three minutes of rest in between.  The goal here is to help your body acclimate to goal race pace and hold it throughout the workout.  During the week leading up to the 5k, I did one of the craziest workouts I've ever attempted.  I started with a sort of 5k simulation.  I warmed up and then ran 1 mile under goal race pace 5:50.  I then jogged for 4 minutes and then ran another mile in 5:55.  After a light cool-down I then hit the track.  I did the famed Oregon 30/40s for the first time in my life.  In this workout, try to run 200m at mile race pace then 200m 10-15 seconds slower than this.  This is called a float workout because the recovery is still done at a quick pace (maybe a little slower than half marathon pace).  It is rumored that Steve Prefontaine once did 4 miles of these hitting his repeats in 30 seconds and then in 40 seconds (hence the name).  I did two miles total and my splits were more of a 40/50 but I was still pleased with this.  The 30/40s end right when your fast repeat or recovery falls off pace.  I went into this workout with two total miles as my goal but cannot wait to see how many I can do in a row!  I then finished with 12 x 50m of all out sprints (see video of this at bottom and the one on form too).  This workout was a beast and I encourage anyone to try some of them out and see if they help you.

2nd Annual pALS 5k:

On 5/27 I ran my first race of the summer.  I finished in 5th place in 18:40 (6:01/mile) and took home second in my age group.  This is a solid start to the summer and I cannot wait to begin chipping away at this time and hopefully break well into the 17:00 range (Or better!- we'll see).  My splits for the race were: 5:52, 6:04, 6:14, :30 .1 mile sprint.  I had a strong kick to finish out this race.  The good news is that I did not get passed by anyone in the race!  I can say this definately has never happened to me before.  My splits were about 10 seconds off, which is not too terrible but I would like to be a little more consistent.  There were a lot of high school runners in this race, which brings me to a point I want to make about pacing.  The high school kids sprinted out to the lead of the race and then faded very quickly.  I was probably somewhere between 10th and 15th place until just before the first mile.  This does not produce good results in distance racing.  Go out at the pace you want to run and hold it.  If you feel good, then you can bring it down from there.  It is very difficult to run a race when your first mile is 30-45 seconds faster than your overall pace.  I have learned this the hard way too.  I used to race this way but can now guarantee you will do better going out slower in any distance race.  The race I ran benefited People with ALS.  It was put on my the parents of Jon Blais.  He was diagnosed with ALS in 2005, and despite this, completed the World Ironman Championships in Hawaii that year.  When crossing the finish line, he log-rolled to raise awareness for ALS (which many people did at the race).  His story is inspirational and I encourage everyone to watch below.  Before the race started Jon's dad spoke and told us to remember him and what he fought for.  He told all of the runners to think of Jon during the race and be his arms and legs out there when we felt weak.  We (as runners) are fortunate for the gift we have been given.  We are so lucky and blessed to be given the chance to chase after our dreams everyday. 

Run Happy,
David

Check out these videos:

- Jon Blais and his War on ALS
















- Ryan Hall Sprints

- Sage Canaday's speed/form drills

Hope these help!