10 Tips to Recover After a Race

Anyone can work hard. The best have the discipline to recover.

After just finishing a marathon all I could think about was when I could run again.

We are so used to running and training for a race that the thought of taking time off is scary.  Recovery should be our number one priority though and how you recover is almost as important as the training itself.

Your legs need rest. Remember, you just ran a race and trained hard for countless weeks.  Sometimes I feel a little over trained at the end of my cycle and mentally need that break to let my mind reset.

Today, I’m sharing my favorite ways to recover after running a marathon.  Enjoy 🙂

1. Eating lots of carbs, protein, and fruit. This triple pack repairs your muscles and boosts your immunity. Plus you need to get your glycogen levels back up.
2. Get a massage! This will help with flushing out the lactic acid, loosen your body up, and muscle recovery as well.
3. Wear recovery shoes! My friends at Oofos just sent me the new Oomgs and they are amazing! I never realized what a difference wearing recovery shoes could make.  I am a big proponent of wearing my running shoes whenever I can for support (lose the $1 flip flops asap) but hate putting extra miles on my shoes.  These recovery shoes, and their sandals, have made a difference in my down time from exercising.
4. Take an Epsom salt bath! Fill that tub up with some hot water, 3 cups Epsom salt, 1 cup baking soda, and just RELAX.
5. Cross train! I usually bike a little, go for some walks, shoot hoops, swim, or anything I can to give my body the cardio it wants without doing the running thing.
6. Foam Roll or use the stick! I hold tight to my stick and take it everywhere during training and it is no different in recovery mode.  This helps for breaking up the tissue fascia to speed up the recovery process.
7. Yoga!! Stretching and yoga are a priority after a race. Yoga is a low impact form of strength and it improves your circulation.
8. Sleep, sleep, and more sleep.  Your body has been non stop for weeks, take a step back and just rest. Let your body rebuild and focus on getting good quality sleep.
9. & 10. Electrolytes and BCAAs! WATER is so important and should be an absolute must in recovery but these help majorly as well. These are a staple in my training and again even more so in my recovery.  Nuun and HelixBCAAs are two major staples in my recovery.

Let me know if you have any questions about my recovery tips in the comments below! Do you have any tips that work for you that I didn’t mention? I’d love to hear them!!