I ran a 3:30 marathon Sunday. Had some sore muscles and fatigue after it but still have a bit of pain on the top of the foot.
How many days would you take off any running in general?
Some plan says 2 weeks, some 1 week. But I feel I should go sooner as I want burn some calories as the post diet was not ideal.
would you start also when the pain on the top of the foot is still present?
It depends how you feel. I've run marathons that afterwards, I kept running daily, mostly easy runs for a few weeks, but no days off. This was typically when I was tolerating high mileage (for me, around 80-85 per week) without signs of injury. Then other times, when I've felt beat up, mentally or physically fatigues with nagging pains, I've take about 3 days completely off, then only easy runs.
Some people say a whole week off or a month. I suppose that's necessary if you have an injury, truly need it, or come back quickly after that long off. But for me (far from an elite, but BQ with 10-15 min to spare) I tend to do better to continue running after a few (0-3) days, but with just very easy running until the body starts to feel strong again. Some people feel great after a week or more off. I feel terrible. But very easy running, if I'm injury free, lets me recover best. YMMV
Usually 1-3 days without running should be enough.
But if you have some pain in your foot I would address that first.
After some easy running you could back to normal training after 2 weeks or so.
I see recovery plans for relatively low-mileage runners (<70 mpw) back at their usual number of days after two weeks (2-3 days off, then few very short runs that first week, then 1-2 days less than usual the second week). Return to, say, weekly mileage around average mpw for the last 12 pre-taper weeks is around the fifth week (sixth for older runners).
And yes: always be more cautious with pain. Always listen to your body by taking things a little more slowly if you need to, but don’t rush getting back into it the first few weeks even if you feel good.
Your body isn’t in a good place for adapting to training stimulus those first few weeks, so you want to do just enough to recover, reduce detraining, and have your legs ready to go at that later point where you can benefit from training again. Pushing past that is low-reward, high risk.
The people who can get more aggressive coming back tend to be higher mileage, faster runners who are biomechanically efficient and have plenty of experience to know how their body will respond.
Thank you for the responses. I have no sore muscles anymore but the foot pain is still there. So I could possibly run but only with a bit of pain. Need to wait a bit more, never had this after a marathon.
My main fear was that after a marathon the body is still in stress and some processes in the body might be harmful if you start too early again. So I did not want to rush anything. But with the foot issue I am not really in a position to start faster stuff again anyway.
Give it a week and eat a lot. No need to rush.
cunningham fans wrote:
I ran a 3:30 marathon Sunday. Had some sore muscles and fatigue after it but still have a bit of pain on the top of the foot.
How many days would you take off any running in general?
Some plan says 2 weeks, some 1 week. But I feel I should go sooner as I want burn some calories as the post diet was not ideal.
would you start also when the pain on the top of the foot is still present?
If you read a similar post written by someone else, how would you respond?
I know it's hard to take a step back sometimes, but go outside, take a walk, enjoy a week off from running.
If your foot is still bothering you this weekend, go see a PT next week.
Congrats on finishing a marathon - you deserve some downtime!