Comrades Marathon 2019: Best ways to recover after Comrades: Straight after yo…
Comrades Marathon 2019: Best ways to recover after Comrades: Straight after your run No matter how tired you are, immediately…
Comrades Marathon 2019:
Best ways to recover after Comrades:
Straight after your run
No matter how tired you are, immediately after the marathon, you need to keep moving. Walk through the finish area and change into some dry clothes.
If you lie down make sure your legs are up to prevent blood from pooling in your legs causing a drop in blood pressure.
Drink enough fluid with electrolytes to correct any dehydration. Be careful not to drink too much water though as it can lead to life-threatening water intoxication.
Don’t drink alcohol. It dilates blood vessels which will aggravate the muscle damage, increase scar tissue formation and extend recovery.
You may feel nauseous but it is crucial to get post-race nutrition within 30 minutes after the marathon. Make sure you eat a meal with carbohydrates and protein within two to four hours of the marathon.
A gentle massage within two to 10 minutes of your finish might help boost immune function and help your heart rate and blood pressure return to normal faster.
Ice down sore and injured muscles so blood vessels constrict to prevent ‘bleeding’ from the microscopic tears and to help reduce inflammation.
Stretching might make your muscles feel better temporarily and improve circulation, but will not prevent soreness.
Putting on compression garments post-race can work miracles for muscle recovery.
The slow recovery process
Comrades recovery is a slow process and should not be hurried. Listen to your body. How long you should rest depends on many factors and will be different for every person. The amount of muscle damage, your age, fitness level, injuries or infections all play a role. In the days after a marathon, your priority is re-fuelling and hydration. You need to get your fluid balance back to normal.
One of the most common mistakes runners make after Comrades is getting back on the road too soon. Many runners, especially novices and medal winners, get excited about running after Comrades. As soon as stiffness from the marathon has worn off, you might feel as if you have recovered and start training again. But you need to take a good break. You should probably rest from all training for a month.
Comrades takes a toll on your entire body and will be painful. You will have pain and tiredness for up to 10 days from the constant use of your body that comes from running such a long distance. You will have microscopic tears in your muscle fibres. The tendons, ligaments and sheath around the muscles are damaged and need time to rebuild to be repaired and become stronger than before.
If you don’t allow the body time to complete this cycle, the muscle and connective tissue will instead get weaker, leading to continuous injuries. The damaged cells can also die completely and form scar tissue, which is not as strong or elastic as muscle and connective tissue making the muscle weak and prone to injury. You must make sure your body has fully recovered before running again.
You might also have mental fatigue or even mild depression for a few days after the race caused by the depletion of neurotransmitters in your brain which need time to regenerate. So you need to recover psychologically. You can ease yourself into your normal training programme again when Spring has almost arrived.
Source:
https://www.bonitas.co.za/best-ways-recover-comrades-2/
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