Marathon Recovery - What you need to be doing the first day, week, and month post marathon

In the hours following your finish however your high will begin to ebb away. This is when it hits you that marathons do take quite the toll on your body. 

You will feel sore in the usual and unusual places. A lot of the soreness will be a direct result of your weaker areas of your body and where your form is lacking the most.

Some runners feel more sore in their knees while others (my hand is raised) feel it in their hips. You might experience soreness in your lower back, calves or feet. Probably all of those areas!

The point is to be aware of where it's bothering you the most. That's what you will want to target in the days following your marathon and even might be an area that you target with more strengthening exercises if you continue racing.

It's always good to be prepared and have things that you might need post marathon on hand before your actual marathon race day.

Preparing ahead of time becomes even more important if you are traveling to an out of town race.

Think about what you might want to bring with you to the race to have immediately following your finish line success. Also consider the things that you might want in the upcoming days post marathon.

Here's a list of post marathon recovery tools

Bio freeze

Bio freeze is such a soothing gel to slather onto all of those sore muscles!  This also comes in patches that you can stick onto your achy spots.

Moleskin

If you have any blisters that need to be taken care if you are going back to work, etc. and need to wear appropriate shoes. Band aids might also do the trick depending on the severity of the blister.

Any Appointments

Do you need to set up any appointments such as a massage or chiropractor treatment for after your marathon? 

Epsom Salt

Epsom salt baths are a great way to relieve muscle soreness and tension while allowing you to relax!

Get your Epsom salt infused with essential oils to further aid in your marathon recovery.

Instant Cold Packs

With instant cold packs there is no need to have ice at the finish line. These packs become cold upon squeezing them!

Also, they are not overly large or cumbersome which makes them easy for you to pack up in your bag for the finish line.

Heating Pad

 Heating pads, hot water bottles, microwavable rice bags: again, muscle relief. That's what we're all about here!

Chapstick

You might experience some very dry lips in the days post race.

Stock up!

This one from Burt's Bees is my personal favorite!

Ibuprofen/acetomenaphin

You are going to want some sort of pain killer - especially that first night post marathon. You might find yourself with aches that keep you from sleeping. Pain relievers can help you get that good night's sleep.

Body Glide

You are going to want it for any chafing that you might be blessed with.

Massage Stick

Use a massage stick to actively break up any stiffness and tension in your muscles.

High Carbohydrate Foods

You can have treats but mostly complex carbs as well! You need carbohydrates in order to build back those depleted energy reserves you just burned through.

Your Energy Drink

Your energy drink: yes, keep drinking your energy drink post marathon! It will be one of the easiest and fastest ways you can recover from the marathon

Water Bottle

Chug that water! This 32 ounce water bottle is my favorite!

Comfy Socks

Comfy anything is going to provide soothing relief to your post marathon body. 

Cozy socks though are going to help alleviate your aching feet.

Your Running Supplements

You are going to want to continue taking your running supplements especially Vitamin C  (to boost your immunity!) and Vitamin B (for energy!)

Compression Socks

You can read all about the benefits of wearing compression socks post marathon on this page. Bring them with you (if you're not wearing them already during the race) post marathon and wear them the rest of the day and even when you go to bed!

Shoes to Walk in Immediately after the race

Have you seen these post run recovery shoes with over 6,000+ 5 star Amazon reviews? Or do you have a pair? Are they good?

Perhaps include some of these treats in a gift basket for a soon-to-be marathon finisher:

• Gift card to their favorite restaurant or pizza place

• Their favorite candy

• A new running book

• A new running movie

• Gift card for a new pair of running shoes

• Throw in one of our free celebratory running cards as well

Even if you do go and get a massage be sure to spend a chunk of time stretching immediately following the race.

Open up your hips, stretch your inner thighs, and keep your legs straight. These muscles have been kept tight and have been undergoing a repetitive movement for 26 miles.

The more resistant these muscles are to stretching the greater their need to be stretched (unless of course, in the case of an injury).

You lose a lot of flexibility as a runner and even more so from running a marathon.

Try to work in at least 20 minutes of stretching on the day you finish your marathon. Keep stretching for 20 minutes per day for the next week. 

Wear your compression socks for 48 hours after your marathon.

It has been proven that wearing compression socks helps in enhancing functional recovery while reducing swelling and soreness.

If you didn't wear any during your race then put compression socks on once you cross the finish line.  

You can even sleep in them the first night or two post marathon for extra recovery benefits!

Keep your marathon recovery diet at 55-60% carbohydrate so that you can start to replenish those depleted glycogen stores.

Choose foods that are higher in glucose like, pastas, breads, and rice. 

Try to also eat at least 20% protein to help the muscles begin repairs and recover faster. Here is a list of foods (and activities) that are best for you post marathon.

Keep Drinking Water!

This needs to be a priority during your entire marathon recovery!

Drink lots of water to keep yourself from becoming dehydrated which is still a threat post race.

Your cells have lost a lot of water throughout the race and like your carbohydrate stores they need to be replenished. Besides, drinking (and stretching) will also help to reduce muscle soreness.

Foam Roll or Stretch Right Before Bed

You may experience tightness especially the first night post marathon. Try to use your foam roller to loosen up those muscles at least once throughout that first day. 

It would be best to foam roll right before bed as loosening the muscles will:

• cause them to relax, enabling you to fall asleep faster,
• have greater quality sleep 
• help you find a more comfortable sleeping position 

If you experience "charlie horses" (more common at night) following the marathon where your calf muscles lock up on you and can cause you to cry like a baby, just concentrate on pulling your toes up and lengthening your calf muscle.

The charlie horse will disappear almost immediately!

Take at least 500-1000mg Vitamin C. Your immunity level will be compromised from running such a long distance.

You are prone to developing a cold, fever, or sickness right after running a marathon due supressed immunity. The best think you can do is to try your best to prevent a cold or sickness. 

Make a note to take more Vitamin C (about 500mg) upon awakening in the morning.

Here are some things you can do to help speed up the marathon recovery process during that first week post race:

• Try to keep your diet at about 50-55% carbohydrates - you are still replenishing your glycogen stores after running 26.2 miles.

• Continue to eat lots of anti-inflammatory foods (fruits and vegetables). Here is a page that is dedicated to ways you can fight inflammation and the best foods you can eat to do so. 

• Drink half your body weight in ounces every day - even if this is not something that you already are doing, try to make this a priority for one week. Your recovery will happen so much faster when you are well hydrated. In fact, did you know that dehydration is one of the leading causes of injury? 

• Stretch for at least 20 minutes each day. Feel free to break this up between 10 of stretching minutes when you wake up and 10 minutes before you go to sleep. You can find many wonderful stretching routines and videos on YouTube for recovery and repair. Here is a link to my 4 favorite stretches for runners.

• You can do some light exercises such as walking or light cycling or maybe a slow jog but no intense, fast paced running or workouts for at least 2 weeks

• Remember to wear your compression socks for 48 hours post marathon to get the full recovery benefits from wearing them. If you want, you can even wear them to bed. 

• If you are starting to feel "run down" (excuse the pun) take 500 mg Vitamin C each night before going to bed. You can also focus on eating and consuming citrus fruits that are high in VC like oranges, lemons, and grapefruit which help to boost your immune system which has taken a beating over the course of the marathon. 

• Give your brain a break - it also needs some marathon recovery time, ok? You just asked it to completely use all its energy to go a crazy long distance. The best thing you can do for it is actually to go to sleep, let it rest, rewire, work through all that you just put it through.

• Write in your running log. Reflection is so important for growth in your running! Go back and look through your training notes and try to see patterns or where you feel like you made the most progress, what you felt helped the most, what you learned, your takeaways from the race, etc. Write it all down. This will also help with the mental marathon recovery from your race. I include a post race reflection sheet in both my Mindset Training for Marathoners and this Printable Running Lifestyle Journal. 

When can you run again? When is your Marathon Recovery Cycle Complete?

I like to advise runners to give at least 1 day of rest for every mile that they raced.

So if you run a marathon, take a break from all racing, speed working, and hill training for about 26 days and consider this your marathon recovery period.

You can run but keep it to slow, easy runs at about 60% of your heart rate. Running too an intensely, too soon after a marathon will put you at a high risk of injury.

After 26 days, you can begin another training program (assuming that you are now a die-hard marathon fan). Ease into it though. Don't start training at the fitness level you were at when you ran a marathon. Give your body time to get back into a training routine and start off slowly and gradually.

If you aren't ready to start training for another race but don't want to lose all of your hard earned fitness then here is  a plan of action!

Oh, and by the way...Congratulations on a marathon in the bag! You're pretty great. :)

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