Recently somebody asked me when should you start with recovery after a marathon, is it the next day or do you wait a couple of days? Now to me the question seemed to assume that recovery is this one thing you have to do to feel better, but that is not the case.
Recovery from your marathon starts now. When you are training for a marathon or any other race you are working on your recovery. Your training is part of that. The better prepared you are for your race, the better you feel after your race and the less recovery you will need.
The closer you get to your race the more you can prepare for the run, but also for your recovery. Everything you’re doing to prepare for your race is basically also prepping for your recovery.
Drink lots of water! In the time leading up to your race, but also after, you want to make sure your body is hydrated and you give your muscles enough fluids. This also goes for other fuel, make sure you eat well before and after your race to fuel your body right.
After running your race, a half marathon or a full marathon, those are long distances and even though you’ve done a lot of training, your body is getting a pounding and most likely you’re going to feel this the day after the race. Don’t sit around waiting for it to feel better, get your body movin’ and get that blood flowing through your muscles. You don’t need to go running straight away, you’ve deserved the rest, but a nice walk can’t hurt.
Some compression or recovery socks could also help you with the blood flow through your legs and might help you recover faster. As would a nice massage or work over with a machine like the body buffer. It helps the blood flow and gets your muscles to feel better quicker. Of course a machine like the Air Relax is perfect to feel rejuvenated after your runs, but with the higher price point it's not for everybody.
3 or 4 days after your big race try a little run again, don’t do one of those long runs you’ve been training for weeks now, just a little 5K run at an easy pace. If that goes well, just ease back into your training and get ready for your next race.
If you’re running long races, chances are you’re going to feel it at some point and don’t worry about it, it’s all just part of it. Take some time to recover and feel good about your accomplishment. The biggest part of recovery happens before the race, if you show up well prepared you’ll need less time to recover afterwards. So drink that water, fuel your body and put in the training.