Passive recovery means stillness and inactivity. By contrast, active recovery means being active in a way that promotes recovery rather than intensity

A few weekends ago I ran marathon number 44 , which was a controlled effort for sub number 31. After celebrating with a can of Guinness , or three, it was off back to the mainland and time for active recovery. Now when I recover from a marathon it is not a pretty sight. It’s a bit like drinking really, I can drink like a 18 year old (please note I only really drink after the Rottnest Marathon as it’s tradition and the beer mile because, well, it’s the beer mile?!) but I recover (and suffer) like a 80 year old. Personally I think the reason hangovers get worse ,with age , is because otherwise we’d all just keep drinking to excess and ,unfortunately, this can only end badly as we grow older. If there is a God, ( and it’s a bit if,) then I can see why he (or she?) programmed us this way. Best thing to do is abstain completely but then how can you enter the Beer mile, it is a quandary ?

Right , back to me recovering. Normally after a marathon I give myself a minimum of three days off , sometimes even up to a week. After that I gotta run, I mean ‘ c’mon ‘ we’re runners, it’s what we do right? Anyhow I say ‘run‘ in the loosest sense of the word because my legs are normally well and truely ‘goosed’ and it feels like you’re running on wooden stumps. The first gradient I encounter can result in racing people walking and minding their own business. The look on their faces when this old, balding , bearded runner (?) sidles up to them is priceless. I’m not sure if they just feel pity or disgust at my inability to pass them in a reasonable manor. Of course over time I eventually get back to a some sort of pre-marathon form and pace and it’s onwards and upwards to the next one. (Remember , there is always a next one.)

The week after my last marathon , Rottnest, was particularly testing as for some reason I only gave myself Monday off running. Tuesday I was back into it and ‘stumbling‘ around Kings Park trying to convince myself this was a good idea, when it clearly wasn’t. This continued for the whole week,  truth be told and as I type this post I really question my decision. Was running a week after a marathon achieving anything bar humiliation ?

Funnily enough I googled “passive recovery after a marathon” and Google returned a post I had written in November 2016. How good was that ? On rereading the post I impressed myself (which is easy to do , mind.) So it’s worth another read (link below)

https://www.runbkrun.com/2016/11/07/the-day-after-the-marathon-active-or-passive-recovery/

For me after Rottnest I felt I should have opted for ‘passive’ recovery and piled on the kilograms before starting again. Weight is another good indicator of recovery and if you aim to put on at least a couple of kilograms before setting out on your next adventure it won’t be a problem. After carbo loading before a marathon and adding a few kilograms after, to aid recovery, running the marathon itself suddenly seems worth it ?  I’m sure I read somewhere that Meb Keflezighi,  or Ryan Hall,  liked to add a few kilograms after a marathon and wouldn’t start training until he had. Probably Meb , but looking at Ryan since he retired it may have been him !!

From the Guardian online.

Your immune system has taken a battering, your muscles are torn in lots of places and you won’t fully recover for a few weeks.

The severity of the damage and speed of recovery after a long distance run depend on how fit the person is to start with. For the casual runner who has spent several months training properly, the physiological damage during the marathon would have started as a gradual congestion of waste products in the body. “Your tissues are asked to do something that they’re not normally asked to do at that speed at that number of repetitions at that distance,” says Neil Black, head of physiotherapy at the English Institute of Sport.

The fatigue leads to soreness and tightness in the muscles. This means that the runner starts to move slowly and inefficiently. “When they slow down, they will change their gait slightly,” says Clyde Williams, a physiologist at Loughborough University. “They’re changing to a recruitment of muscles that have not been used for training and that’s when you get fur­ther aches and pains.” In addition, about halfway through the race, the constant pounding of the feet on the roads starts to cause pain in the joints.

At about 20 miles, levels of glucose in the bloodstream start to drop and the stores of carbohydrate energy in the body are almost depleted. Runners will become more aware of the distress signals that the various parts of the body are sending to the brain. “The distractions of the crowds and the bands and the cheering become less of a distraction and the focus goes more on the body,” says Williams.

Dehydration is also a risk. Runners drink water en route to replace the fluid lost through sweat but can’t fully replace it, simply because of the time it takes to get water through the digestive system into the bloodstream.

All this adds up, effectively, to major trauma. After the race, runners are left with microscopic tears in their leg muscles, which leak proteins such as myoglobin into the bloodstream.”The body’s defence mechanism will see these tears as damaged tissue and will set up an inflammatory response,” says Williams. Part of this response is that free radicals are released, which also attack the tissue. This leads to the familiar soreness.

Runners often pick up a cold or an infection afterwards, as the immune system tends to be suppressed for several hours after the marathon.

It takes weeks for the body to return to normal. “A lot of people, after a week, feel reasonably well recovered but it would be very unlikely they truly had recovered at a physiological level,” says Black.

Hammering out 26.2 miles takes a toll on your body—not to mention all the training miles leading up to race day.

It’s time you got some rest.

Rest from running and recovery look different for everybody. Some runners need weeks of reduced mileage to work back into hard running while others, like elite ultrarunner Michael Wardian, can run seven marathons on all seven continents in seven days.

For those us of not like Wardian, deliberate rest from running is important to getting back into regular training.

This guide will teach you the basics of how to recover from a marathon, including how to massage, what to eat and how to rest before easing back into running.

What to Eat to Recover After a Marathon

Eating is an important component of training. You need to eat the right foods (and enough of them) to sustain your longest days, and you have to find nutrition that doesn’t upset your stomach. But what you eat after your run is just as critical because it replenishes lost nutrients and repairs spent muscles. The best post-run foods do both, and taste delicious.

Your body burns lots of carbohydrates—its favorite fuel source—during a marathon, and your muscles break down from the extended effort. So, it’s important to refill your tank with both carbohydrates and protein to restore balance (a 2:1 carb to protein ratio is recommended).

As with everyday nutrition post-marathon, reach for real, whole foods like leafy greens, lean proteins and fats rich in anti-inflammatory omega 3s to aid recovery.

And don’t forget to hydrate. Your body needs water to function properly and flush waste products out of your system. A good goal: Drink about half your body weight in ounces each day. That’s 60 ounces for a 120-pound person or 100 ounces for a 200-pound person. But remember this is just a rule of thumb. As temperature and humidity changes, so do your hydration needs (for example, warmer weather calls for more water).

When in doubt, check your urine; your pee should be light in color, not dark like apple juice, or worse, soda.

How to Massage After a Marathon

The 26.2 miles you just ran is likely the longest distance you covered since you began training, and a lot can happen over that distance. Inflammation and aches and pains from a couple of dozen miles pounding the pavement is almost always guaranteed.

Massage helps alleviate some of the aches and pains by loosening knots and adhesions in muscles or soothing nagging problems like plantar fasciitis.

Here’s how you can massage after your run:

• Save your shins. While you’re sitting down, stretch out your leg in front of you. Press your thumbs into the muscles on either side of your shin bone and rotate your ankle in every direction. Search for sore spots up and down your leg, and give them some extra attention. Repeat on the other leg.
• Get the glutes. Put a foam roller or a lacrosse ball beneath your glute and roll it around. When you hit a tight spot, keep the pressure there until it loosens up. Repeat on the other side.
• Care for your calves. Your calf muscles absorb a lot of impact from running, and they’ll begin to feel it after a marathon. Sit on the floor and place a foam roller beneath your calf muscle. Roll forward and backward to release tight areas on both legs.

A word of caution: Know when to call it quits. Massage can be uncomfortable at times, but it should not produce sharp pains, numbness or tingling. If you feel any of those, lighten up or stop for the day.

Running a marathon puts a lot of stress on your body. In addition to eating right and massaging away knots, your body will need time to repair itself. That’s why you need rest after running a long race.

How to Rest After a Marathon

But rest isn’t passive. Resting after a marathon takes conscious effort, and your body will thank you for it. Generally after a big race, it’s a good idea to take at least one full week of non-running recovery. During this sacred period, it’s OK to exercise, just keep it light and mostly resistance free. Think leisurely walks, hikes or bike rides.

And, make sleep a priority because your body and muscles recover best when you’re asleep. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends seven or more hours of sleep per night for adults. Getting the recommended amount of shut eye will make you more alert and ward off sickness, too.

But the CDC says only about 35 percent of adults get the sleep they need, which affects more than just running recovery. Inadequate sleep is linked to chronic health conditions like Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity and depression, according to the CDC.

Bottom line: You will train and recover better if you get better sleep. If you’re struggling to fall asleep or stay asleep, try these tips:

• Avoid drinking alcohol late in the evening.
• Before bed, eliminate exposure to blue light from TVs, computers and smartphones (if you must be online, consider downloading a free app like Flux that filters blue light).
• Get to bed at a consistent time, preferably before 10 p.m.
• Set your thermostat between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Track your sleep to understand your sleep quality.
• Avoid working or reading in bed.

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