What does you do for marathon recovery (ie time completely off, how much mileage, etc)?
What does you do for marathon recovery (ie time completely off, how much mileage, etc)?
You may want to go to Coolrunning.com's competetive forum to get a lot of marathon advice. Most of the posters here are high school kids and collegians who mainly run around in circles. Lots of milers to 5k type runners here.......even though some are very fast.
Thoner,
You need to look again. This isn't Dyestat.
Most of the posters here have run marathons. I have run 7 marathons and two ultras.
What are you even talking about?
I have run some marathons. I count on 3-4 wks to recover.
I typically take 3-4 days off, then do abt 3.0-3.5 mi, then another day off, then another 3-4 mi or so. Gradually pick up the distance -- in the week covering 7-13 days post-race, I usually run 5 or 6 times, no farther than 7 mi. By the end of the 3rd week, I'm at 9-10 mi/day.
On the 22nd day after the marathon, IMO if you aren;t back to the low-end of your steady volume, you;re slackign off. But don't rush back. By the end of the 4th week, you;re reqady for track/hill stuff again, and if you donlt do any, you;re slacking off.
If your legs don't get back to "feeling good" by then, it may be b/c you've been at low training for abt 6 weeks (including pre-marathon taper) and you're just out of shape. And that's normal.
Just IMO.
thanks for the advice. I am hoping to take a few days off and slowly start back into things. I had heard something about a reverse taper and was thinking about trying that. So, you didn't start back with faster stuff, etc until 3 weeks, huh? I am HOPING to be back at it by the end of my second week, but maybe that is rushing things? I have only run a couple marathons, so I do not have a lot of marathon experience. I have some good momentum going and would like to keep it going, not to mention that I would like to avoid as much of the post marathon blues as possible!
Thoner = boner
I still think you would get more replies at Coolrunning than here (more of a track and short roadrace type of website). Case in point, you have had this posted for 24 hours now and only have 2 good replies and a couple of jack-a--'s.
It all depends on how much base and years of running you have behind you, as well as marathon experience. If you are a low mileage runner (i.e 95mi/week and under), then you may want to take the first week off or do some very light running. Definitely make sure you so not run much the first 3 days or so. If you are a hig mileage runner like myself (130 plus) then you will probably expereince a much quicker recovery. Like a poster said above, simply reverse taper a mirror image of your last 3 weeks prior to marathon. Somewhere around a month after, run a 1/2 marathon race if possible and you will reap the rewards of your marathon training once again....may even PR.
Try to fight the urge -- It's the rare runner who can "keep the momentum" without just gettinf run down. Not all of yr conditioninmg will vanish, but I'm of the opinion that the rest does you good - -in part b/c I think spending 50 weeks a year sucked way down in wieght and doing the metabolic equivalent of living paycheck-to-paycheck -- from meal to meal -- runs you down too much. Put on 3-5 lbs after the race, then whittle them down.
I find I come back really eager to train to get rid of the buffalo wings and milkshakes I put on my gut.