This article appeared in the Nov/Dec 2012 issue of Marathon & Beyond
Afterlife
You’ve Just Completed Your First, Fifth or Fiftieth Marathon.
What Do You Do Now?
By Dan Horvath
“Never again.” If you’re a marathoner, it’s more than likely that you’ve uttered those exact two words. Whether you’ve achieved your goals, failed miserably, or fell somewhere in between, it’s natural to have a letdown after you finish. This is the case whether you had other races planned, or hadn’t thought at all about any future running. There are a few who land on their feet, and can’t wait to start training for their next one, but for many to most of us, “never again” is the first thought that occurs to us as we cross that finish line, at least some of the time. It takes some period of time, be it hours, days, weeks, or longer, before we begin to think about what comes next. What comes next is, however, pretty important for the future of your running career.
This article first occurred to me when a friend finished her first marathon, doing quite well in the process, and proceeded to ask me, “What do I do now?” When I began to think about just how important the answer is, it occurred to me that this is something that all of us should consider.
So this is all about rest and recovery, as well as post-marathon goal setting and planning. It’s about taking stock of your achievement, and then striving to improve, or setting some different goals and developing a plan to achieve them.
So now that you’ve crossed that finish line, here’s what you need to do:
Rest and Recover
This is job one. No matter how you did during your race. No matter how soon your next race will be. No matter how you felt during the race. No matter how you feel once you’ve finished. The marathon has beaten you up to some extent. You simply must recover.
If you ran strong and finished strong, you’ll need some rest, but perhaps not as much as if you crashed and burned. If your finish, final miles, or even entire second half conjured thoughts of the Bataan Death March, you will need to take more time off afterward. One rule of thumb is to take as many days to recover as there were miles in your race, so about a month of recovery time is reasonable. This may, but doesn’t necessarily have to mean, no running for 26 days. You should, however, at least have the attitude that you are in recovery mode for that length of time. Here are some additional thoughts about rest and recovery in terms of a timeline.
Within one hour after your finish:
Walk. Walking immediately after finishing helps stretch your strained muscles just a bit, and helps your body to cool down gradually – a good thing.
Drink. Most runners will be dehydrated after a race, and need to drink water or a sport drink afterwards. A smaller percentage of runners will be in danger of hypnotremia, a dilution of sodium in the bloodstream and definitely should not drink afterwards. There is a wealth of information about hypnotremia that will help you determine whether you may be susceptible to it.
Eat. As with any hard endurance effort, your body needs some amount of carbohydrate and protein as soon as possible in order to begin rebuilding torn or strained musculature. Eating something within 15 minutes of finishing is recommended, but any calories within the first hour will be helpful.
Stretch. But do so very gently! This will also help your muscles recover.
Soak. What if I told you that there’s a way to immediately reduce inflammation and jump-start recovery of your worn leg-muscles without using drugs? Soak your legs in water as cold as you can stand. In 2005, I participated in the Tahoe Triple, three marathons in three consecutive days around Lake Tahoe. I learned that soaking one’s legs in the 39F lake water right after each run was de rigour to enable recovery for the next day’s big effort. If you can’t manage to find a body of cold water right after the race, do so as soon as possible.
Get massage. These are available in the finish area of many races. Although these 10-minute variety massages aren’t as thorough as the one-hour types, they can help smooth out your tired muscles. Don’t plan on being able to get back off the table easily afterwards.
Celebrate. In any way you feel is appropriate. You’ve earned it.
Within one day after your finish:
Drink. You will most likely be dehydrated for a while. If you’re not in danger of hypnotremia, keep right on drinking.
Eat. You need additional protein and carbohydrates throughout the 24 hours following the race in order to continue rebuilding your strained muscles. Especially protein.
Walk. Don’t run, but go for a walk the following day.
Stretch. But do it gently.
Soak. Another bath in the evening of the race will also be helpful as well as soothing. This one doesn’t have to be in cold water!
Within one week after your finish:
Walk. Walking will still be helpful in the days following your race.
Stretch. Stretching will also be helpful in the coming days.
Get massage. After a couple days, it’s time for a good massage. It’ll do wonders. You’ll feel human again.
Run. Yes, unless you’re injured or have time off planned, you can try to run again. But do it gently. Remember the recovery rule. So no speedwork or high mileage, thank you. By the time the following weekend rolls around, depending on how you finished (see above) you may feel good enough to run hard again. Resist. Yes, you may have another race scheduled (see below) at some point, but if at all possible, you should still take it easy.
Cross-train. Gently. Easy cycling, swimming, even easy strength training will actually help speed your recovery. It may even help you feel like you’re not a total slouch (don’t worry: you aren’t anyway – you deserved that rest).
Within one month after your finish:
Get massage. A second one a week or two after the first one will be helpful as well.
Run. After a couple weeks you can tentatively begin running hard again.
Cross-train. You can gradually get back to the levels of these activities that you were at prior to your race. You’ll likely find that your fitness in these areas will come back faster than your running.
That’s what most of us should do. What if you have another race in a month, a week, or, for the truly insane, a day? You should still follow the ideas outlined above as much as possible. You may just need to temper the ‘within one month’ plans.
Bear in mind that you are extremely susceptible to illness and injury and during this recovery period. Your immune system has been stressed, so you will not be able to fight off cold, flu, or other infections as well as before. It’s best to avoid possible contact with sources for such diseases by taking additional preventative measures. Likewise, injuries are very common among runners who have recently completed a marathon and who have begun running again. Your entire musculoskeletal system has also been stressed and by running too hard too soon afterwards, you’re at risk of bringing on a new injury.
The rest and recovery information noted above is about the physiological aspects of your post-marathon period. Psychological aspects can be just as important. The initial euphoria may wear off rather quickly, giving way to a let down, possibly even depression. The marathon, including the planning, training, and the execution of the event itself, was a huge part of your life for a long period of time. Now, suddenly it’s over. As we said right off the bat, what do you do now? Most importantly, devote the time and effort that you spent preparing for your marathon on something else that’s important to you. This may also be running-related, such as volunteering at a race or concentrating on some other type of event or distance. Or perhaps some aspect of your life, such as time with the family or friends had been slightly neglected during your race build-up. Now is the time to devote more of your time to those parts of your life.
Do a Post Mortem
You’ve run a marathon. Even in this day and age when lots of other folks are doing so, there are still billions who aren’t. It’s a great accomplishment to complete such an endeavor, no matter how you look at it. That said, we need to note that we are going to feel much better about some of these efforts than others. Someone who reaches a long-standing goal of, say, qualifying for Boston, breaking three or four hours, placing well, etc. may be quite ecstatic afterwards. Those who crash and burn, or otherwise miss a time goal by a little or a lot may not be quite so happy with their effort. The former group ought to go ahead and enjoy their celebration, while the latter group should take solace in the fact that they’ve still accomplished and learned a great deal. This advice is coming from someone who misses his goals extremely often.
After a day or two your head will be relatively clearer and you can be a bit more objective about your run. This is the time to truly take stock. Many of us would or should have set three goals for ourselves:
Our “wildest dream”. A goal that appears just out of our reach but is not completely out the question for us. For example, placing in the top three of your age group when the best you’ve done previously was fifth, or perhaps setting a personal best time even when this wouldn’t have been indicated by your training. Anything that exceeds expectations qualifies here.
The standard doable-but-difficult goal. This can be anything from winning the race to simply running a steady pace to making a specific time goal. This is the attainment of exactly what you’ve trained for.
The acceptable goal. This is the bare minimum that you will accept, based on your training and past performances. For most of us, this should be to simply make it to the finish line. For the over-achiever/type A/hyper-intense types, it may be a time goal that’s somewhat slower than the standard-but-difficult time goal.
Now we can ask, how did we do in terms of these goals? And more importantly, how can we do better? Even if you didn’t explicitly set such goals ahead of time, you can still think about your race in these terms. You can often reconcile your effort in such a way that, even if you missed goal 1 or 2, you may have achieved something even greater, although possibly less tangible. Perhaps you learned how to surge late in a race, finished your strongest last 6.2 miles ever, or made a new friend during the run. Take it from someone who is too often too hard on himself – it isn’t helpful to berate yourself for not achieving some purely arbitrary goal. No matter how you did, take gratification in your effort.
Set Your Next Goals
We marathoners are quintessential over-achievers. We’ve taken the simple activity of running, something that is generally very good for us in moderation, and taken it to extremes. Extremes that sometimes border on being detrimental to our well-being. Most of us began running for the health benefits as well as the social and psychological aspects. We’ve taken this to the point where it drives us, and our loved ones, quite mad.
Goal setting for activities after the race is best done before the race. This may involve planning for a second race before you’ve completed a first one, something most of us don’t do. Presumably, you had some kind of goal before your previous race, and you at least, say, completed the race. Now it’s time to set or adjust your goal(s) for your next one.
The most important considerations are your own aspirations. If you said “Never again”, and still mean it several days or weeks afterwards, then by all means don’t plan on any future marathons. Do plan on running, and perhaps racing other distances again someday, however. Remember: the running part is good for you.
Time goals are the easiest to reconcile; you either made it or you didn’t. On the other hand, it’s been said that the clock will be your most implacable opponent of all. It becomes excruciatingly clear whether you’ve met a time goal or you didn’t. Placing and other goals are a bit more difficult to quantify. Perhaps you may have wanted to win a small race, but then noticed that Paul Tergat and Paula Radcliffe had unexpectedly shown up at the start line. This would be a good time to consider your second or third tier goals. But back to time, by way of example:
Lets say that you had a time goal for the race you’ve just completed. One might be to qualify for Boston with a 3:40 or better, while another may be trying to break three or four hours. Based on your training and the timing of the previous race, let’s say you thought that you could do it. Perhaps you were in the shape of your life. Assuming you finished, there are three possible outcomes for the race just completed:
You exceeded your time goal! All you need to do now is to determine if you are willing to place the time and effort into further improvements, or simply assume that you’ve done the best you’ll ever do, and set your goals accordingly. Changing your goals completely is worth consideration now – instead of a time goal – maybe you’ll want to place higher. Perhaps you’d like to concentrate a different type of event.
You barely missed your time goal. This means you performed almost as expected and were on the right track. Many of us have been there: you were right on pace through, say mile 21, but then the fatigue caught up with you and your pace slowed. You probably need to only tweak your training to enable stronger finishes or to correct other problems.
You were much slower than your time goal. Even in this instance, there may have been extenuating circumstances such as terrible weather, illness or last-minute injury. If, however, there were no such circumstances, you may need a dose of reality. Perhaps your training wasn’t as solid as you had thought. Can you train better without undue risks? Or perhaps this time goal simply isn’t for you; some people will never be able to run a marathon in that specific time, period.
Create a Plan
One of the important considerations in planning your future running is the timing. Assuming that you do want to run another marathon some day, when should that day be? Now that you’ve completed your marathon, done a post-mortem and set your next goals, it’s time to create, and then execute a plan. Do you need to improve fitness by increasing volume or intensity, maintain your fitness level or simply avoid injury? Your plan needs to account for it.
Training plans are ubiquitous. Most are quite good, and work for a variety of different runners. You need to pick and/or create one that will work for you, as well as fit into your timing schedule. To help your planning, reflect on such sources as “Daniels’ Running Formula-2nd Edition” by Jack Daniels, “Advanced Marathoning” by Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas, or Hal Higdon’s Marathon Training Guide at www.halhigdon.com. Other options are to employ a coach (live or online) or to simply design your own. To help you with fitting your training plan into a schedule, I’ve fashioned some for your consideration.
The schedules are not full-blown training plans. They are the timeframes with mileage guidelines for your training plans. In terms of percentage of maximum weekly mileage or time, the schedules will give you a framework around which to build your plan. They all show a dip in mileage after your recent marathon and then the build-up for your next one. The difference between them is that the dip is shorter, and the build-up is steeper for the four and two month schedules. To use them, first determine the highest amount of miles or time spent running per week that you plan to achieve during the training for your next marathon. Multiply this by the percentages along the x-axis, and create your schedule.
Six-Month Framework: Two or fewer marathons a year – perhaps one in the spring and one in the fall - work best for most marathon runners who seek optimal performance. Allowing five or more months between these efforts gives you the time you probably need to recover before beginning a 16 to 20 week training plan.
Four-Month Framework: Say you complete a marathon in May, and want to do another in September. Bear in mind that the shorter the recovery period, the higher the risk of injury.
Two-Month Framework: You run one marathon, and then need to recover, build up your mileage back up and taper for your next one, all within about nine weeks. Now we’re getting really risky, so proceed with caution.
Other Frameworks: Those of us who’ve rattled our brains from running too much may try to run a second marathon less than two months after the first. Some of us may even run them a couple weeks apart, or, for something like the Tahoe Triple, only a day apart. Try scheduling rest, build-up and a taper for that scenario. The truth is that you won’t achieve optimal performance as well as have the least risk of injury with anything less than five months time between efforts. This is not to say that you shouldn’t run marathons more often; if you want to, go ahead and have fun doing so.
Executing Your Plan
Lance Armstrong was interviewed immediately after the 2005 Tour de France and was asked what he would miss the most in retirement. He probably thought about the competition, the camaraderie, the overall excitement. But after a moment’s thought, he said something that was somewhat surprising. He said, “I’ll never be in this kind of shape again in my life, and I’ll miss that the most.” When you think about it, this is a profound and telling statement.
When you do start training once again, don’t expect to be at the same level of fitness that you were in during the build-up for your marathon. Even if the time lapse between your race and your resumption of training is short, you will notice that you can’t run quite as fast, long or hard as you used to. This reduction in fitness should have been built into your new plan, and should not come as a surprise. Have confidence that your fitness level will indeed return to, and perhaps exceed, the previous levels.
Since you’re starting over to some extent, you may actually find yourself thoroughly enjoying the experience of running again. Whereas it may have seemed like work whilst in the midst of your hard training, it’s now become fun again. There is something quite liberating about running with drastically reduced expectations. Feel free to enjoy the experience as you did when you first began running.
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