Recover faster after an ultramarathon
So you’ve just finished a long ultra. Congratulations! You’ve most certainly put in a lot of effort during the last couple of hours, maybe even days! All you want to do is just get out of your clothes, take off those damned shoes and step into a shower. That is, if you’re lucky enough to convince yourself that your chafed and bruised body can handle a shower…
Why recovery is essential
There’s something contradictory to the fact that you put a lot of effort into just finishing a race, but once you’ve finally crossed the finish line, you’re not quite done yet… In order not to get into trouble later, you can’t just lie down and fall asleep right there and then. You need to gather some strength to focus on recovery, however much you wish that you could somehow be teleported a few hours ahead, to that blissful time when you finally get to climb into bed. And even then, things may not be as comfortable as you’d like them to be. Hey, your legs are aching! Your feet hurt! You need to go to the bathroom — again!
Well, every ultrarunner has been there, and whatever the challenge you’ve just finished, you need to start your recovery. And most of the time you want to recover fast, because even if the first thing you said when finishing was “I’m never doing this again!”, what happens is that only a few hours later, you’re already thinking about your next big race.
So how to make this recovery period as short and productive as possible? We’ve collected some tips and tricks for you, and to make it a bit easier, they appear in the order you should apply them, starting even before race day.
The short version: 10 tips for a fast recovery after an ultramarathon
Come to the race well prepared
Once you’ve finished, put your feet up
Eat to nourish your body
Keep hydrating (add electrolytes to your drinks)
Take care of minor injuries, blisters and swelling
Reward yourself and thank yourself for an amazing finish
Sleep as much as possible
Rest in motion with non-impact training
Allow time for mental recovery — analyze, reflect and give your mind and soul time to heal
Don’t get back into training too quickly
If you’re aiming for a slightly longer run — let’s say 72 hours or more — you need to be prepared.
Before the start of your race
Be prepared
This may be one of the most fundamental truths out there, but many of us forget or choose to ignore it: If you prepare well (i.e. train enough) before a race, recovery will be faster. If you’ve done your homework and prepared for the task ahead, you won’t take as much of a beating as you would if you’ve only managed to do a small part of the training you planned. Even better is if you’ve been consistent with strength training, mobility and stretching — then recovery may even be rather joyful!
Prepare for the upcoming torment
Chafing and blisters may be part of what you just have to learn to live with, being an ultrarunner. But you can do your best to try to prevent them from getting a too strong hold of your body. Lubricate yourself, preferably with Shea butter, on all parts of your body that may (or may not) chafe.
Expert tips on recovery from Yolanda Holder. Yolanda is an Ultramarathoner, Author, Motivational Speaker and 2X Guinness World Record Holder for most Marathons completed in a year. She has several other World records and American records, please read more on her website. Follow her on Instagram as @yolandaholder!
When crossing the finish line
Don’t stop taking care of yourself during the last hour of the race
It’s very common to ignore taking care of yourself when you’re starting to get closer to the finish line. You’ve been good uptil then, managing nutrition, hydration and everything else going on from sunscreen to chafing, blisters and frequent toilet stops — so now you can afford to be a little more careless. Don’t be! First of all, you can’t be sure you’ll finish until you actually cross the finish line. A number of unexpected things can happen in an ultra. Even during the last hours – or minutes. And second of all, you should take good care of yourself during this time, as to not obstruct recovery. You don’t want to have too much of a calorie deficit to work yourself up from, nor do you want to fall into a state of hypothermia or severe dehydration, just because you stopped being smart that last hour.
Keep eating, manage your hydration and sodium levels, and stay smart!
Once you’ve crossed the finish line — don’t do anything stupid
Keep moving! This is perhaps the most important thing you could tell your crew to remind you of. When you’ve finished, don’t stop immediately. Try to walk for a bit, or even jog a few steps every now and then. Bring your body down gently. It’s been through a hell of an effort and you need to let it adjust to being still. Moving around for a bit once you’ve finished will help prevent some of the stiffness and soreness you’re about to feel.
Don’t do stupid things like forgetting to eat or drink altogether.
Don’t drink too much alcohol. A non-alcoholic beer is great for recovery, while alcohol only gives your body (and kidneys) more toxines to take care of.
Don’t take NSAIDs. Please try to avoid taking any painkillers, especially those that are NSAIDs, since they affect your kidneys, which are already strained from the effort of running for many hours.
Pete Kostelnick and Johnny Hällneby has just finished a 6-day ultramarathon race at 3 Days at the Fair in 2018. Lotta Thörn is tending to Johnny, taking off his shoes and giving him a leg massage immediately. At this race, Johnny set a new Swedish National Record for 6-day running with 547 miles (880 km) and also won the competition.
Eat for recovery
If you manage to keep your head in the game, despite running for hours and hours, you should direct your thoughts towards nutrition, not just the nearest junk food you can think of. By that we meen vitamins, minerals as well as protein, fat and high quality carbs. The better you eat, the faster you’ll recover.
If you have access to anti-inflammatory food, like turmeric, ginger, garlic, lemon and so on, try to include this into what you eat in the hours after finishing.
Why not prepare food in advance for this purpose? Now may be the time to buy those expensive high quality smoothies with everything green in them, or to tell your loved ones to cook super healthy food for you.
Keep hydrating, not just drinking
Keep the mindset of the race — add salt, sugar and good vibes to your drinks.
This may be tricky, but during these crucial hours, right after the race, you should try to think of hydration as if you were still racing. Just because you’re not running anymore, doesn’t mean you can treat thirst (or the sensation of not being thirsty at all!) as you would on a normal day. Sure, you need water, but also electrolytes. Pre-made oral rehydration products are great for this purpose as they contain both salt and glucose and help your body stay hydrated.
Place a bottle of water beside your bed, and a couple of salt tablets.
Ice-cold showers and baths
This is a good old trick which gains its credibility mostly from hearsay and anecdotes. Those who attest to its effectiveness claim that in order for an ice-cold bath to aid recovery, it should be administered as soon as possible after finishing a race.
If you have access to ice, dump it into a bath tub filled with cold water. Or simply put it in a bucket and put your feet into it. A cold shower may also do the trick.
Take good care of your feet! Running an ultra involves a lot of self care. Photo Martin Lundström.
Take care of blisters, toe-nails, swelling and injuries (before they turn worse)
Don’t wait until the morning after a race to take care of any smaller injuries, since they might get worse. Try to clean yourself (i.e. your feet) properly, taking care of blisters, toe-nails pointing the wrong way and swelling ancles. If you wait, these minor issues may turn worse due to infection or unattended swelling.
Compression
Many ultrarunners love to use compression tights or compression socks (or both!) after a long ultra. The actual effect on recovery that comes from using compression is debated, but the feeling is often divine. And that’s a reason as good as any, don’t you think? Many times when we’ve been struggling to fall asleep after a long race, due to aching legs, slipping into a pair of compression tights is what finally does the trick.
Sleep
Once you’ve managed to get yourself to this point, you’re in for a treat. It’s like you’ve finally understood the meaning of life. There’s nothing quite so satisfying and rewarding than crawling into bed and closing your eyes… No matter the fact that your legs ache and sort of itches inside, and you’ve got strange sensations in your feet and legs making you twitch and turn… Not to mention how your head is spinning with all the impressions (mostly images of the trail or road beneath your feet). Still — this is the moment you worked so hard for and day-dreamed so vividly about during all those hours out there on the course.
If you manage to get a few hours of sleep, this will aid recovery immensely. But don’t fret over the fact that you might not get a good night’s sleep in many days. Or weeks depending on how long your race was.
Pete Kostelnick is an American Ultramarathon runner most known for his World Record for fastest coast-to-coast crossing of the United States by foot, in 42 days, six hours and 30 minutes. He is also a two time Badwater Ultramarathon champion. Follow him on Instagram @petekostelnick!
Recovery during the following week
Rest in motion
Don’t think that a fast recovery comes from sitting still. Your body needs to heal all of the million microscopical injuries that come from racing hard, and for this to be possible, you need a good circulation. Your body can’t flush out all of the bad stuff unless you get your blood moving about. So get up and move, but move gently!
All non-impact training, like swimming, cycling, yoga, long walks, working out on the crosstrainer will be good for you. Just don’t go too hard or too long during the week after a big race.
If you feel like running, you can, just go slow and short. Anyone being on a runstreak testifies that a short runstreak-run the day after a tough effort only helps recovery. But you need to respect the idea of running slowly and not for too long (about 20-40 minutes is ok).
Sauna, Bikram yoga, Yin yoga, dance — anything that has to do with warm muscles moving in fluent motions will be good for you!
Mental recovery
Isn’t everyone just super happy after finishing an ultra race? The fact is that for a number of reasons, you’re very likely to get hit by “runner’s blues” after a long race. The longer and tougher the effort, the harder this depression might hit you. Some runners get so affected by this that they take a few weeks or even months off running completely. This is of course fine, but if you don’t like feeling that slight anxiety every time you see your running shoes, here’s what you should do.
Be proud. Try to nurture pride in everything connected to the race. Think of the effort you put in, the hours you spent on the trails and the number of blisters you got. And the numbers of toe-nails you’ll be missing. Even if the result of the race may not be what you expected or hoped for, you still ought to be proud. Anyone toeing the starting line of an ultra is a super hero — that’s just a fact. You don’t even have to finish.
Start looking for new races and start daydreaming about new challenges. Even better if you’ve already started to plan your new races beforehand, so your happiness doesn’t depend on this single race.
Reflect and analyze. Don’t forget that reflecting on the adventure you just experienced, is an important part of recovery. Write a race report and try to include your recovery into the report. This information will be invaluable when you plan your next race.
Debrief, preferably with someone who was in the same race as you. It doesn’t have to be a fellow runner, it could be a member of your crew, the race organization or one of the volunteers. Debriefing with a friend who were there, is much more powerful than telling your story to someone who has no idea what hardships you’ve endured.
Allow yourself some down time. Just chilling, watching Netflix, reading a book or doing what is ultimately relaxing to you is important. You may have to plan some down time in advance in order for it to happen. It’s oh so easy to think that working on Monday will be just fine after a 48-hour weekend on the trails, when in fact you may need some adjusting to everyday life after such an effort. It’s not just the physical damage to consider — your mind and soul need time to heal too.
Meditate. As strange as it may sound, meditation is something of a "quick fix" for getting back into your usual state of mind after a race.
Johnny Hällneby and John Fegyveresi chatting and eating during the 6-day race at 3 Days at the Fair in 2018. John Fegyveresi is one of very few runners ever to have finished the Barkley Marathons.
Don’t get back into training too quickly
Once you feel recovered and ready to take up training again, try to be smart. Just because you don’t feel sore anymore and all of the stiffness in your muscles are gone, it doesn’t mean you’re ready. There are joints, ligaments and tendons in your body that need time to repair, and the tricky part is — you don’t feel soreness in these areas in the same way that you do in your muscles. Herein lies the biggest risk of injury, not having properly healed after a long run and therefore getting an injury.
One rule of thumb is that for every hour you’ve spent racing, you need one whole day to recover. Let’s say you ran a 100-miler on a demanding trail and finished just short of 24 hours. Then you may need a full 24 days before you’re ready to train hard (like long runs, hill training or speed work) or to race at full capacity again. However, the better prepared you are, the faster you can get back into training again. If you’re one of the runners that easily ticks off training weeks with 100 miles per week, then a 100-mile race won’t be that big of an effort. So let’s not focus too much on the amount of days needed for recovery. And remember, whatever amount of days you choose to train in “recovery mode” we still advice you to train during this period. Just train smart. Do lots of non-impact training and focus on movement and easy runs. And try to enjoy your days of recovery, allowing your body and mind work their way up to being ready for your next challenge!
How do you usually recover after your ultramarathon races? Have you used any of the tips we shared? Let us know in the comments!
Happy running!
Ellen Westfelt, Ultrarunning Academy