BENEFITS OF LONG-DISTANCE RACE RECOVERY
Reduce our risk of overuse injuries.
Prepare our body for our next training session.
Help avoid mental and physical burnout.
Reduce the severity of delayed onset muscle soreness (the DOMS) in the following hours and days.
Increase overall health and performance.
We should plan for a good recovery process before our long-distance race.
The week after a long-distance race or run and we should bounce back as quickly as possible, so we can move on to our next big race.
Luckily, many runners make their overall general health a high priority. We should focus to look and feel our best as quickly as possible.
The best way to recover after Ultra race or long-distance run is to begin to focus on our nutrition and physical recovery
What should we be eating to bring our body back to a good normal health.
While inflammation can be a good thing as it can protect us from injury and help our body make stronger adaptations, we do want to reduce the inflammation that is occurring throughout our body so that we don't end up living in a state of chronic inflammation.
Poor recovery can definitely lead to a high risk of developing infections and drastically reduce our performance during our next workout or race.
11 LONG-DISTANCE RACE OR RUN RECOVERY TIPS
Our recovery will greatly speed up if we follow the tips for recovery.
1. DRINK LOTS OF WATER
This helps to clear out inflammation and other toxic build up that our muscles have released during the race.
We don’t have to just stick to water though, green tea is an excellent source of antioxidants which will help with muscle repairs and reduce free radicals (damaging components) throughout our body.
We should also enjoy a lemon-ginger detox drink in the mornings to help give our system a jump start in long-distance run recovery each day throughout the week after our race.
2. FOCUS ON EATING ANTI-INFLAMMATORY FOODS
Good anti-inflammatory foods
Fruits - Blueberries, berries, avocados and grapes
Veggies - Broccoli and spinach
Fish - Salmon and tuna
Walnuts and almonds
3. TRY TO AVOID FOODS THAT PROMOTE INFLAMMATION SUCH AS HIGH SUGAR FOODS, HIGHLY PROCESSED FOODS, AND MOST RED MEATS
Give yourself that post-race treat meal but really aim to fight inflammation through your foods the rest of the week.
4. YOU WANT TO BUILD BACK CARBOHYDRATE RESERVES BUT AS ALWAYS DO IT BY EATING COMPLEX CARBOHYDRATES
Top complex carbs
Oats
Whole wheat breads
Brown rice
And avoid eating the white carbohydrates such as white rice and white breads that will spike your glucose levels and can increase inflammation
5. TAKE RECOVERY SUPPLEMENTS
Vitamin C- Provides a critical role in our long-distance-run recovery during this time as our immune system is in a compromised state.
Vitamin B12- Helps boost our energy level.
Probiotics 30 billions- Helps with food digestion, enhances synthesis of B vitamins, improves calcium absorption, helps balance intestinal microflora, supports the immune system.
Digestive Enzymes- When we are training for a long run we want to have enough carbohydrates stored in our muscles and liver so that we are able to run the long-distance. Digestive enzymes will help us do this.
6. SCHEDULE TIME TO JUST RELAX DURING LITTLE POCKETS OF YOUR DAY.
Whether we can be taking a short nap, listening to music, reading a book, or journaling, doing stress-reducing activities will help to reduce inflammation as well and promote physical recovery.
No hard workouts, no strict routines, we should enjoy the break and live in the moment. We will be back on the runs in no time at all with good recovery.
7. DO AT LEAST TWO OF THE RICE PRINCIPLES. (RICE = REST, ICE, COMPRESSION, ELEVATON)
Definitely, we should do some good rest. Luckily, we have access to lots of recovery technique as well.
We can get in a cold water bath if we really want to get our recovery going. It improves our circulation, it will reduce the amount of soreness that we feel and the amount of damage suffered by our muscles.
8. WEAR YOUR COMPRESSION LEGGINGS FOR AT LEAST 48-72 HOURS POST RACE
An easy way to elevate our legs and stretch at the same time is to put our feet up a wall, scoot our bum as close as we can towards the wall and just chill for 5-10 minutes.
9. BOOK A MASSAGE.
A sports massage (immediately or during the week after) is a great way to really target our long-distance run recovery process.
A lot of times we might not even notice how much our body is internally still trying to recover until we get a good massage session.
Sports massage and deep tissue massages are the best post-race treatment and can provide a lot of insight into how our body is recovering.
10. START ENJOYING LOW-IMPACT EXERCISE AND ACTIVITIES AFTER 7 DAYS
We should still think of ourself as in recovery mode.
However we are probably feeling the itch to get moving again, we can start slow. We should enjoy the process of taking it a little bit easier.
Walking is one of the best post long-distance race or run activities as it not only gets our blood flowing but it also helps encourage our tired sore muscles to move and loosen up.
11. STRETCH EVERY DAY
Which muscles do we feel are the tightest?
We should focus on where did we feel it the most during and after the race.
We should give those areas a lot of extra love and they will in turn become stronger for the next run.
We should add a stretching schedule every day for the week after a long-distance race to remind us to do even 10 minutes of stretching.
This is our time to also relax, close our eyes, listen to music or just enjoy the silence.
Top Post-Run Stretches
Hip Stretch
Quads Stretch
Hamstring Stretch
Calf Stretch
Adductor/Inner Thigh Stretch
Glutes/Hips/Piriformis Stretch- Figure 4
Upper & lower back
If we plan to be training for another race soon, then it is especially important to take time to heal and recover through foods, light exercise, and good recovery sessions.
Focusing on good post-race recovery, our performance capability will be enhanced during that next training period.
We will also reduce our risk of burnout, avoid injury and be ready to really push ourself to that next level, and enjoy another long-distance run or race.
TOP YOGA RECOVERY STRETCHES: YOGA STRETCHES FOR RUNNERS.pdf
Focus And Enjoy Good Recovery After Running Long-Distance Races, Feel Good, No Muscles Pain Or Injuries, Appreciate Great Extra Long-Distance Runs!
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