The
Tradition
Continues:

September 25, 2010

The
Race
Begins:

199 days
08 hours
17 minutes
42.0 seconds

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"You must believe in yourself, your training, and your ability to perform well."   Tammy Behrens – RRCA Certified Running Coach 

• You will be sore after the race – zinc oxide works well to dry up blisters
• Be sure to re-hydrate, and replace your carbohydrates and protein
• Stretch, walk, light jog
• Give you mind and body time to rest. But don’t wait too long.
• You also may experience somewhat of a let-down. Choose another goal to look forward to.
• You need to cycle in rest times. Do not go from half to marathon training to more serious training without at least a couple to a few weeks of rest.
• The general rule of thumb is to take easy days for the amount of days that your race was in mileage. For a half-marathon, no hard running or walking for 14 days or 2 weeks post race.

Stages of Recovery:

1. Immediate Recovery: Besides happy, you feel hot, tired and maybe woozy from fatigue. Resist the urge to sit; keep moving until the body calms down. After drinking and eating, take another walk later in the day to assure yourself that some energy has returned and your legs still work. Ice on your sore legs will also help to speed recovery.
2. Muscle Recovery: Soreness has settled in the next day, then you feel even more stiff the second day after racing - rest or cross-train gently (walking, biking, and swimming) on these days. Don’t try to “run out” the soreness, which only delays healing and risks injury. Wait out the pain, which seldom lingers longer than a week even after the toughest races. You can resume jogging 2-3 days post race, if you would like, just be sure to keep an easy pace.
3. Full Body Recovery:  Nothing hurts now, but you still don’t feel quite right. Fatigue lingers, especially in the legs. Keep the runs or walks short and slow until the legs liven and lighten up again.
4. Psychological recovery: Even when the body is willing to run long and fast again, the mind may say no. Be patient and form a realistic goal for starting to train again. If you can make yourself a training schedule, you will be more likely to stick to it. Be proud of what you have accomplished.

• Train beyond the season or the next big race. The foundation for success is laid outside the racing months. This is when persistent runners gain the edge on those with more natural talent who take long vacations. Even easy off-season training still beats doing none.   This is what makes you better.
• Practice hard-easy. No runner or walker can train hard every day. The harder days are essential, because racing is hard. But the easier, recovery days are equally important -- and maybe more so because they're more numerous and they make the hard work WORK.