How to recover from an endurance event
You have just run a 10+hr ultra marathon and as well as feeling a little stiff and sore, you are feeling nutritionally depleted, hungry and a little flat. All these feelings are normal; you have used up a whole lot of energy so now time to rest and work on replenishing the system.
When endurance is your preferred workout, you need to understand and manage your energy at all times; any less and you run the risk of coming down with a cold or flu, feeling flat & fatigued and/or completely run down.
Life outside of training can also deplete us of energy; busy life, long working hours and the stress associated with all of this. You need to ensure you keep on top of all this as this can have a dramatic effect on the mind, body and soul.
Nourish, replenish and repair
- Sleep at least 8hrs a night
- Eat nutritious food avoiding the junk
- Stretch and roll
- Meditate
- Soak sore muscles (warm or cold)
- Ice problematic areas such as joints
- Visit regularly sports physician/massage therapist (deep tissue massage)
How long will it take to recover?
We all have a different genetic make up and some of us will naturally recover quicker than others but for the vast majority, we need to be patient and work at adapting our body for a quicker more efficient recovery.
If you run regularly, you need to ensure you keep topping your body up with healthy nutritious fuel as you will start noticing that the recovery times get shorter and shorter as you adapt better to the stress. Your muscles and tendons are getting stronger and your bone density is increasing which allows your body to be able to cope with more volume and in turn quicker recovery times.
Don’t underestimate recovery time
Still running off adrenaline and despite not being able to walk up stairs properly days after the event, you’ll feel like you could go for a run. Don’t. Most of us under estimate the time it takes to recover from an endurance event. The longer the event took, the longer you will take to recover so enjoy the down time while you can and keep replenishing that body with high-net-gain nutrition.
Recovery as the reward
Whilst the load of running pre event became the ‘norm’ and taper may have been a bit of a struggle, when it came time to race you were at your peak and left it all out on the trails. Now that the goal has been reached, its time to sit back and enjoy the greatest reward of all your hard work – recovery.
From the Tarian Pantry – Top 5 recovery products
- Nutra Organics Thriving Protein Powder – Exotic Vanilla and Cacao Choc
- Hemp Foods Australia Hemp seeds
- Heal’r Rooted
- The Health Food Guys Protien bites and bars
- Pure Sports Nutrition Blackcurrant Recovery
Visit our online store to see the whole range of plant-based workout fuel.
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