Did my 2nd marathon distance this year and realized how important recovery is. Never really looked into it much, but pushing myself this far has forced me to do so. My body aches for almost a week after the first one, I wud like to recover quickly after this one. Here are a few quick tips I got from runners world magazine.
http://www.runnersworld.com/injury-treatment/post-run-recovery-tips
Immediate post recovery tips
– Dont allow body to cool down, change to dry clothes and do stretches
– Do stretches, dynamic stretches seem to work best
-Refuel with 4:1 carb:protein with significant electrolytes
-Rehydrate
Post recovery tips
-rest, its when your body actually heals and becomes stronger after pushing it. (I guess until my body doesn’t hurt anymore, but i did a swim that used more hands then legs, probably ok)
-Rest with leg above heart level. (I have seen a few people do this, mostly I try to keep my leg up while seating down, please don’t judge me when you walk into my workplace and see me put my legs on the table).
-Do flat runs to recover from hill runs and vice versa. (I guess after the rest period, also I did a trail hilly run, so I am going to do a flat around the stadium run)
-No pills to treat inflammation, it is part of the healing process. But can eat anti inflammatory foods.
-Water therapy, submerge leg or whole body in water helps with flushing the system. (I do a slow and relax swim, check out total immersion)
Another thing I would like to add is the need for conditioning, or maintaining. I remember when I started off, the delayed onset muscle soreness or DOMS often occured, but as I got used to longer and/or faster runs, the shorter and slow runs didnt hurt much if at all. But i have to keep running or cycling, after 4 weeks of not doing anything my body had reset, but thankfully it was quick to recover. Can probably restart within a week. I recommend at the most 2 weeks rest if needed. More if serious injury, but then have to replace with another activity that doesnt hurt the injured body part.
Blog Of Bobby :p 