Congratulations! You’ve just completed your goal race for the fall and as much as you were looking forward to taking a break from running for three hours each Saturday, you surprisingly feel a bit lost without your training plan.
Here’s what to do in the weeks following the race:
- Sleep as much as possible to let your body heal from both the emotional and physical stress marathon running and training can cause.
- Do the workouts your body craves but keep the intensity low to moderate. If you feel like doing easy runs, run. If you don’t feel like running don’t run! In fact, if you feel like taking the week off completely from exercise, do it!
- Write a journal entry in your training log about your race. This list should include everything you did well immediately before, during and after your race as well as what you want to improve upon for next time.
- Get a massage. If any aches or pains from the marathon don’t go away within a week schedule an appointment with your Physical Therapist.
- Get back on track with a healthful diet. If you found that you were overwhelmingly hungry in the days following the race or indulged in a few too many post-race treats be sure to go back to eating as healthful as possible so you’ll feel your best.
- Begin your off season strength training routine as soon as you feel completely recovered so you’ll be strong and avoid injury when you start training for your next big race.
Thanks for the tips. I always feel a little lost ofter a race is over. After this year’s fall marathon I had a 1/2 scheduled a couple of weeks later, so it was a decent transition out of intense training. I haven’t felt completely covered yet and have a nagging ache in my hip. Seeking professional help next week and hope to get back into some sort of routine.
I was wondering – the picture of the diary that you have on this site? Is that yours? What is it. So cute.
That is my training diary from earlier in the year. It’s from Believe I Am.
Great tips Jess! I was looking forward to a break and was like, I’m going to take 2-3 weeks off! But a few days later, I was ready to get back into things. Today was my first day back to the gym, and I did some upper body lifting to keep giving my legs a break. Can’t wait to get back to running!
Perfect timing with this post!! I’m feeling a little lost myself right now. With no real races on the calendar, I don’t really know what to do with myself! I’m on the hunt for a half in my area in January, so I’ll have a goal to work towards. I’m aimless without a race on the schedule.
PS: I’m in Alabama, so if you know of anything within a couple hours drive from me, let me know! =)