You’ve done it. You’ve run the 26 miles to your goal and hopefully succeeded in running the time you wanted as well. Whether you did or didn’t, here are some things you’ll want to do in the days after your race.
1 and 2 days after
Recovery is key early on, go for a short and very easy run, cycle or swim and add some stretching, foam rolling or potentially some gentle massage to speed up the recovery process.
Eating well is also important. As well as lots of calories, it’s worth adding plenty of vitamin C from citrus fruits and peppers since your immune system may be a little compromised after such a massive effort. Give it a little boost for a couple of days.
Don’t forget to congratulate yourself regardless of whether your race went to plan or not. It’s easy to gloss over success when it comes and dwell on what you didn’t achieve, but my race philosophy is to never dwell on the negative any longer than I’d celebrate the positive.
Within the week after
If you haven’t already, it’s a good idea to set your next goal. This isn’t essential, but a lot of people get “post-marathon blues” after their race and focusing on the next target can help with that. Pick your next race and set a time target for A and B goals.
Next, review your last training block and the build up to race day, asking a series of questions such as; did you stick to the plan? If not, what can you do to stick to it better next time, keeping in mind your new goals? What extra training or self-care is your new goal likely to require? How can I fit this into my weekly schedule?
Once you’ve done a thorough review, revisit the goals you’ve just set and ask if they’re realistic based on the answers you’ve just given to the questions you’ve asked.
Resume structured training
Structured doesn’t mean difficult. I would have a plan for training the week after a marathon, just make it very light, enjoyable and flexible so you can listen to your body and reduce distances or speeds whenever you want to. This will keep you moving and engaged with running. So many people do months of hard work for a marathon, run personal bests for 10k and half marathon during their training, then let it all go by taking weeks off after a marathon. Having done less speed work in favour of more miles, then tapering and 2-3 weeks off all together, it can easily be 2 months since your last fast session. No wonder people say they’ve suddenly got no pace in them.
If you’ve been training on your own a lot, this is the ideal time to have a few chatty runs with friends.
The main points can be boiled down to these;
1) active recovery
2) goal setting and training review
3) keep running!
Good luck in your next marathon. Once it’s done, fill in the “Improve your marathon PB” form on my website and I’ll give you some pointers on what to do next.
Written by Kyle Brooks, Running Coach based in Norwich, Norfolk