The Other Side of the Marathon - Race Recovery

Good Advice

It's been a couple of weeks since Milton Keynes Marathon and recovery seems to be going reasonably well.  I have got a few tips from other marathon and ultra runners over the last couple of years and so I have some recovery strategies lined up for immediately post race, the rest of race day and then the following week.

I have these gems from experienced runners that I know:

Dennis Devey (80 years old and in his heyday ran 30minutes in 10k road races) says: "After a marathon, the worst thing you can do is just sit down.  You've got to keep moving. Get a bacon sandwich and a beer inside you if you like, but keep the legs moving."

Greg Ward (Sandhurst and Windlesham runner and well on his way to 100 marathons): "Flat coke and peanuts, then get a good feed and some more drink, get the compression leggings on and sleep in them."

Paula Fudge (Commonwealth gold medallist, 5000m world record holder and Frimley Lodge parkrunner): "After a marathon I recommend my athletes spend two weeks doing other exercise like swimming or cycling and then have 2 easy weeks doing gentle runs before getting back to training."

In race fuelling - you can run a long way
on malt loaf and jaffa cakes.

Kelvin Gower (Marathon and ultra runner and Cove Jogger's equivalent of Bear Grylls - and a style fan*): "Crisps, banana and milkshake as soon as possible after the run, then feed well and sleep in your compression leggings." 

(*The kind you climb over, not a dedicated follower of fashion)

Both Kelvin and Greg are looking at recovery from the point of view of running marathons or ultras on consecutive days, sometimes 3 or 4 in a row, Paula from, say doing a single spring marathon and then progressing into training for the summer track season and probably Dennis would be the same - occasional marathon, but mostly 5 and 10k and cross-country.

Men in Tights :-/

You may notice that neither Dennis or Paula mention compression clothing, but Kelvin and Greg do.  This could be down to build - Dennis and Paula are both stick thin "born" distance athletes, while Kelvin and Greg have the more meaty calves and thighs of regular folk - something you can actually compress without having to resort to using arm warmers or crepe bandages.

But do they work? Multiple studies in sports science have found decreases in muscle soreness and perceived fatigue from wearing compression clothing during and post race. Some possible increases in blood flow and lymph removal during the recovery period have also been found – though other studies found that wearing the socks after workouts had no greater recovery effect than taking an ice bath.  Given the choice between an ice bath and slipping on a pair leggings, I know what I prefer and compression socks do seem to work for me, at least in post race recovery.  I used to get cramp in the night after a hard or long run, and I don't when sleeping with compression socks on. It means I get to have a decent night's sleep without waking up in the middle of the night crying in pain.  I always use them now, both in a race and especially for recovery.

What does your body need just after a long race?

Well, you have used up lots of glycogen, your body's prime energy source (even a half marathon will have used up most of what your body can store); you have caused loads of micro tears to your leg muscles and you are dehydrated and have depleted your body's stores of mineral salts (sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium in particular).  So you need to replace protein, carbs, water and salts.  Where do you get them from?

Post run recovery at the Basingstoke Canal Cafe
Full English breakfast, tea and cake - it's why we run!

Spices, nuts, cereals, coffee, tea, cocoa and vegetables are rich sources of magnesium.  Foods rich in potassium include dried apricots, dried milk, chocolate, various nuts (especially almonds and pistachios), potatoes and bananas.  For calcium look to milk and other dairy products, but also nuts.  For sodium, of course anything salty will do.  For a quick easily digestible protein fix, milk is good and chocolate, milk and bananas are good sources of carbs.

As you will notice chocolate ticks quite a few boxes (yay!), as does milk, so popping into Starbucks with a banana in your shorts and ordering a full fat mocha latte and a packet of pistachios would do nicely, especially if you wanted to look like a complete knob!  I tend to make do with a bottle of water, another of chocolate milkshake, a banana and a packet of peanuts followed not long after by a walk to the nearest pub or fast food joint for a burger or gammon, egg and chips.  

In the days after a marathon, just eating normal healthy meals is fine and there's no need to be adding supplements to your diet. It is easy, however, to overdo it and completely pig out and this could lead to you putting on weight while you should not be doing much running in your recovery period.

Post Marathon Exercise

Probably the last thing you want to do after a marathon is run.  Even if that is what you intend to do, because you have another marathon to run the next day, you're legs will tend to take some convincing over the first few miles that you are not completely insane.  However, keeping moving is essential if you don't want to spend the whole of the next week seized up and in agony every time you get up.  I was lucky that after my recent Milton Keynes marathon, I was waiting for friends to finish.  I actually had nearly 2 hours from when I finished to when the last of our group came in. Plenty of time to get cleaned up, changed into fresh clothes, eat and drink and cheer on the runners, all the while staying on my feet, walking around and doing some gentle stretching.  I kept this going for the rest of the day as well.

Over the next few days I didn't do any running, but went for walks away from my desk at work as often as I could, a longer walk in the evening and then cycled to work as well.  All low impact stuff.  I did my first gentle jog 4 days after the marathon and had a massage - I figured by this time a massage wouldn't be too painful and I was almost right.  The next day I was back to parkrun with the kids (below race pace) with a few light training runs during the next week, just about following Paula's advice to have a very gentle 2 weeks in the post-marathon period.  It seems to have worked, as following the last few marathons and half marathons I have done, I have not managed to pick up any injuries and have got back to running well within a couple of weeks and using the marathon training to post PB times in 5k and 10k in the month after.

Conditioning and Recovery

How you actually recover will depend on a number of other factors, not just what you eat after the race.

How your base training was going into the race, how hard you ran, what the course was like and how long you have been running long distances all play a part.

After my first marathon, I was wrecked.  Sore feet, ankles and hips, stiff muscles and this didn't ease off for most of the week. I ran a half marathon the next weekend and basically suffered with the same niggles as I had done in the marathon and I was lucky not to have done some serious damage.

An hour after MK Marathon with Greg Ward: changed, fed and
watered and staying on my feet to help recovery

Now, after my 5th marathon, I finished being able to walk slowly but normally, could walk normally by the end of the day and could jog a little the next day.  A lot of this comes down to toughening up the skeleton and tendons having done many more long runs.  This also tallies with a course on marathon training that I went on last year, where the speaker said that it could easily take 2 to 3 years before your body was really ready and strong enough to run a marathon.  Making changes to your muscular-skeletal system takes time.  However, it is still the case that being generally fitter, actually ready for your marathon and paying more attention to preparation, race fuelling and recovery helps too.

Go Long - You know you can do it....

I'm still learning about running marathons and every new one is an education in how my body and mind copes with long distance running. At least now I know I can do it, and I can also recover well enough and get running again without causing myself long term injuries. 

My next marathon will be the Farnham Pilgrim trail marathon in September, followed a month later by Abingdon marathon which will hopefully be another PB run.  For the summer, while it's too hot to be going very long, I'm going to be concentrating on improving speed for fast 5k and 10k races.

Milton Keynes Marathon

Milton Keynes Marathon, my target race for the spring season and my 5th marathon.  I had intended to be doing this with my friend Adam from work, but his training had been ruined by a combination of beer and illness (mostly illness to be fair) so he was in no fit state to run or to drive me there.  By lucky chance Friday 2nd May saw 2 events - an engagement party for Sandhurst Joggers' Vicky Horne and John Tzanetis and the London Marathon finish crew party.  I nipped down to see Vicky and John and met Greg Ward and Emma Lewis who were also doing MK marathon and Emma offered to give me a lift.  Then on to the marshal's do and the draw for marshals places in next year's London Marathon.  There were 86 names in the draw for a possible 30 places.  Sandhurst came out well in the draw with 10 out of 30 guaranteed places with my name coming out no.36.  That pretty much means I will be running London next year as people usually get in up to around 50th place, what with people dropping out of the draw or getting in to the marathon by other means.

Over the weekend before the marathon and I had been eating a bit extra for some carb loading, but keeping it light and not eating late the day before the run, then getting a reasonably early night for a decent sleep.  My bag was packed the day before and all my running and post-run clothes sorted out.  I decided to run in my brand new Brooks Ravenna 4s instead of my old Ravenna 3s.  For some this could be a mistake, running in new shoes, but I get on well with the Ravennas and the new ones just felt more comfortable.  Breakfasted on porridge and raisins, apple juice and made up hi-5 energy/electrolyte drink to sip through the journey to MK.

6:40am and Emma arrived and we had a trouble free journey up to Stadium MK arriving just before 8am leaving plenty of time for a stroll around the stadium and then back to the car to get into race kit.  The weather early on was bright and sunny and forecast to get up to 18⁰C, but with cloud cover from 10am. At 9:30 I went with Emma to drop my bag off in the stadium and make our way to the start.  The race was being held at the same time as Milton Keynes Half marathon so it was quite crowded with both races mixed together with obviously slower runners squeezed in near the front with the faster club runners.  I caught site of the 4 hour pacer who was trailing a large blue balloon and lined up nearby.

The start came at 10am and we shuffled forward to the line and got into running. I checked my pace aiming to do a couple of miles at 9:10/mile, then moving up to 9:00/mile for as long as I could.  I kept the 4hour balloon in sight and no further away than about 50m.  The route goes from the stadium to the centre of MK along a gently rising main road around several roundabouts (it is roundabout city after all) before getting to the centre, which is laid out like an American city on a grid pattern.  You then make your way up a steady climb with a series of 90⁰ left turns on out and back diversions for a few hundred metres on side streets, all the while hugging the centre of the tree-lined boulevards for a bit if extra shade. (See the bits in blue on the route plan).  Getting back out of the centre of town is the same, but with a long gentle downhill section to get back to sweeping main roads and roundabouts to the 10 mile mark where the half and full marathons separate.

The profile says about 100m of climb, but the
Garmin has it at 265m. I believe Garmin on this one.

Then its on to cycle tracks, or "redways" around the suburbs of MK.  For those who don't know MK but are local to me, it's a bit like Bracknell Half with wide footpaths and cycle lanes dipping into underpasses with some quite steep little climbs back out to road level.  From about 17 miles the course starts to climb up a series of short hills one after the other to 21 miles, then with some more sharp undulations to just past 23 miles where the route starts to drop gently back to the finish.  You run on or past 25 roundabouts (Yay!), but disappointingly no concrete cows (Sad face on that MK organisers!)

I managed to hang on to the 4 hour pacer to just beyond 19 miles passing through half distance at 1:56:40 and 20 miles at 2:59:15 (which beat my previous PB for 20 miles by 6:42).  At about 18 miles I came across a runner who was staggering drunk-like and obviously in need of medical attention, but the marshal who was just 30m away was just looking at him. I shouted at the marshall to get up and help the runner and call for first aid.  The heat was taking its toll on a lot of runners and I passed a few more laid out being attended to and a lot of people walking in the last 6 miles. I also heard people talking about other issues with some marshals not being pro-active enough in aiding runners in distress - they needed to be better trained to recognise when medical attention was needed.

From 19 miles I slowed from around 9 minute miles to around 9:30/mile for the next 3-4 miles when disaster hit in a rapid series of cramps in my right leg, starting with a piece of my upper calf, then hamstring, then inner thigh. I had been taking gels at regular 4mile intervals, water at every stop-usually about 200ml-and some energy drink at the 2 drink stations that had them.  Even with all this the skin on my face was like sandpaper with all the salt dried on it. I was obviously dehydrated and seriously lacking in salts!

The cramps stopped me dead for a minute while I stretched out my hamstring, but I got going again walking for the next few minutes before trying to jog.  I came up to another runner (Graham Holland from Ealing Eagles) with cramp problems and we teamed up to jog/walk up the climbs and jog the downhills.  He even gave me a little extra water in the last mile, so I must have looked bad, even though I was OK mentally.

I had accepted that my Plan A of a sub-4 hour time had been blown away, but it was still a bit of an emotional sight to see 4 hours tick by with the stadium in sight just half a mile away.  Time to grit my teeth and not give up - there was still a decent PB to get.  Plan B was still on and we made it to the stadium approach sweeping (OK, fast shuffling!) past KFC and McDonalds and round the car park to go down a ramp to the pitchside track.  There were a few hundred people in the stadium still waiting to cheer the finishers on and you could see your own finish happening live on the big stadium screens.  I managed to at least look like I was running when I crossed the line arms raised and looking like a salty ghost, before grinding to a halt, hands on knees.

Emma, me, Vicky, Greg and Vicky's daughter all proudly
showing off our medals (Photo: Janet Foran)

My fellow Sandhurst runners finished like this: Greg War 4:48:50, Emma Lewis 5:43:20, Vicky Horne 5:55:47.  Both Vicky and Greg had run a marathon the previous day.


My official finish time was 4:06:37.
Here are my splits:8:55 9:09 9:00 8:47 8:57 8:54 9:12 8:41 8:39 9:00 8:51 8:58 8:50 8:57 8:55 9:06 9:10 9:17 9:40 9:35 9:24 10:28 11:30 12:21 10:39 2:58  

Cramp set in near the end of mile 23 and the finish distance was 26.34miles according to Garmin.  Without the cramp, I may well have been able to dip under 4 hours, as I lost 6:20 over a 9:40/mile pace over the last 4 miles, but that leads to...

Lessons Learned:

1. I could really do with doing more warm weather training at distance and managing my hydration better.  Have another go at an 15 to 18 mile run and weighing myself before and after.  I drank quite a lot compared to other runners that I saw on the course, but maybe I need to do more?
2. I am a salty sweater and I am going to look into taking salt tablets along with water for my next 20 mile or marathon.  Hopefully that will keep the cramps at bay.  I might also try looking at what ultra runners eat - protein as well as carbs, so peanuts or mini pizzas might be the order of the day!
3. Hi-5 gels are my favourite - nice natural flavour and easy to drink. I think Gatorade upsets my stomach a bit and blue drink is just wrong in so many ways.
4. My foot care is sorted.  I used toe socks with compression socks over and came away with comfortable, blister free feet.  Wearing new shoes worked out fine for me as well - but they were another pair of a shoe that I knew worked for me.
5. I have a new personal superstition - I always do well in a race with a green medal.  Bramley 20 (PB by 20 mins), Bracknell Half (PB by 2:30) and MK Marathon (PB by nearly 8 mins).  All had green medals. 
6. Any PB is a success and any marathon finished is an achievement.

Now my marathon has been run, my summer goals will be to lose some weight, get closer to a 21 minute parkrun and run at least one of the Yateley 10k races.  I've just got to see which one is going to have the lucky green ribbon on this year.

Bracknell Half - Tapering?

Bracknell Half Marathon this year comes one week before Milton Keynes marathon, so you would normally call it a tapering run.  However, it is more likely that you would have to call it a race - a proper Balls out, Peddle to the metal race - being as it features the usual Duncan and James Ball vs Dave and Chris Peddle amateur smackdown, with me in the front row, usually shaking my head at what passes for race tactics.  But, like watching kids run, it can be fun.  For a view of the front of the Balls vs Peddles race you can see Duncan's blog post - it's a thrilling read!

I did this race for the first time last year, the week after London marathon and I suffered in the last 3 miles from the injuries that slowed me down in the marathon.  This time I was fit and in good form coming off the back of a parkrun PB and a near PB 10k training run in the week.  The weather turned out to be perfect as well, with rain easing off before the start and staying cool and cloudy until the finish.

The plan for Bracknell was to go out for a 1:48:00 finish.  That means an average 8:15/mile pace and because I like to try and run a negative split I would try to start at 8:25/mile for the first 2 miles to warm up, then up it to 8:15 pace until the last couple of miles, before pushing for the finish line. Well that works OK if it's a pan flat course, which Bracknell isn't, so it's more of a guide.  

For this run I had James Ball and Dave Peddle with me, James saying he wanted to stick with my pace as long as he could.  Dave Peddle was taking the race with James seriously and he pulled away from James and me at 5 miles looking strong and running with good style, though he was still in sight on the main hill at 8miles.  James stuck with the pace all the way to the big hill on Harvest Ride, when he started to drop back a little.  I figured the elastic between me and James had broken on the hill and didn't look back on the mile long descent down Long Hill Road until I turned into the next underpass to find James only 30m behind. A great effort by James to keep in touch.

Post run medal shot

From here the course goes through a lot of wooded cycle ways through houses and it's only a little undulating until closing in on the 12 mile mark when you get into a tarmac path through woodland and a steep drop down towards Southill Park and the finish.  I flew down the hill feeling really good and caught up with Dave who was a bit panicked to see me, calling out "Where's James?" I said 100m back, but I don't think he heard me.  Pushing on to the line I made sure not to reach for the Garmin until after I'd crossed the finish. The official finish time was 1:47:03, a minute ahead of plan I think due to the fast run in and a PB by 2.5minutes.  To top it all, the rest of the guys had great races too, with Duncan coming in a couple of seconds ahead of Chris and Dave a minute or two ahead of James with Chris, Dave and James all setting new PB times.

Splits:  8:15 8:22 8:21 8:19 8:09 8:32 8:25 8:27 8:04 8:14 8:19 8:08 7:29 3