What to do immidiately and in a week post race...
The glory comes in form of a finisher medal in your neck that you can flaunt forever after running a marathon.
Along with every race comes soreness, learning’s, hits & misses, and a positive or negative experience.
Whatever happens on the race day is the outcome of long term and short term training process, weather conditions and execution of knowledge acquired from different sources during the course of training.
Things to do after you cross your finish line...
Once you cross the finish line your mindfulness can really speed up your recovery process. Your physiological recovery will start as soon as you cross the finish line, but sadly very few coaches and mentors talk about it.
You have been out there and exerting yourself for long hours of running, no matter how much water you had during the race your body is in severe dehydration and in need of electrolytes and carbohydrates.
One should keep walking towards hydration station post run and grab some electrolytes before sitting down and eating your post run meal packet.
One must walk towards cool-down area after replenishing electrolytes 500-1000ml and then eating some simple carbohydrates to replenish glucose in the muscles.
Then if you feel like can do some mild static stretches lying down on floor, this will help in bringing your heart rate to normal levels quickly and relive the tightness in fatigued muscles.
Keep the stretches gentle and try to take longer breathes to ease out muscle tension.
After spending 30-60 minutes in the cool-down area you can gradually getup click lifetime memories 📸 and find your way back to home or hotel.
A cold shower or ice bath post race can help in reducing soreness quickly and speeds up recovery process.
Things to do in the week after the race...
After a day or two one can go for short walks, practice mobility flexibility workouts at home or at gym.
A pain relief massage is highly recommended after 2 days of running a race, which helps in flushing out toxins and speeds up the recovery process.
If there is no soreness in any of the joints after a week you can start with short jogs 20-30mins and do strength training 2-3 times a week to regain muscular strength, which deteriorates immensely while clocking miles.
Stay healthy, Stay young!
Cheers
Coach Gagan Arora