Marathon Training Beyond the Miles: RECOVERY
Man, this week has been crazy! The ministry that I work in at our church went on a retreat in the mountains of California Wednesday and Thursday. As soon as we arrived at the cabin I stepped out onto SNOW! It would be an understatement to say that I was excited!
We spent two days relaxing, bonding with each other, and a lot of time in silent, personal study and reflection of the bible. It was really a refreshing time. I mean check out this beautiful view!
I was even able to squeeze in little time with a cup of coffee and my current favorite book! So much interesting information in those pages!
After last weekend’s 17 mile long with, finished with a tempo I was pooped! It took me longer than usual to recover, which isn’t surprising since that was a really good effort that I put in. But after having to push my Tuesday workout this week to Wednesday I decided that it was probably time to get a better idea of how to recover faster from my long/hard runs!
I found a few great articles about recovery from Runner’s World. Article #1
I was excited to learn that there is a lot of things that I do right when it comes to recovery, but also surprised to find that there are a lot of things that I really need to work on!
10 Important Things to incorporate into your Recovery
- Cool down. It is really important to cool your body down slowly. Finish your run with a little slow walking and stretching before moving on to the rest of your day.
- Feed your body right! Feel free to treat yourself after a long run with a big brunch or an extra scoop of ice cream but make sure that your body is getting the nutrients it needs to recover. Extra important: don’t forget to get in a well balanced snack within 30 minutes of finishing your run!
- Get a massage or foam roll, this encourages blood to flow and helps sore legs heal faster!
- Get moving! (at least just a little) Even on my off days I like to take the dogs for a short walk, get in the pool and splash around, or just get off the couch for a little bit.
- Stretch out your muscles and improve your flexibility by stretching or doing some yoga!
- Take an ice bath!
- Relax and stretch in the hot tub!
- Make sure you are HYDRATING! Drink lots of water throughout the day!
- Get your legs up – lay on the floor or your bed and place your feet/legs up against the wall. This helps to flush our your legs.
- Get a good night of sleep! And even take a quick nap during the day after a long run or hard workout.
This morning’s run was an easy 15 miles and today’s focus is really on making sure I do as many of these 10 things so that I am ready for my workouts and coming up next week!
What was your Saturday run?
Anyone have a race coming up soon?
What recovery methods are you really good at? Which do you have to work on?