How do you recover after races?

[Monica]

I just ran my first marathon on saturday at the Baltimore Running Festival. I'm feeling pretty sore, but not nearly as bad as I would have expected--i always ran middle distance in school so longer distances are totally new to me--anyhow I went for a run today that was pretty painful and a few people told me that i shouldn't have gone out for a run so soon. What do you think? I don't want to take time off..but then again if you're supposed to take a few days off after a race I don't want to accidently injure myself.

[Tommy Heikkinen]

Just as long as you take it easy after a big race you will be fine. I took a day off after my half marathon and then over the next 4 days worked up to my normal intensity. There are ways to recover faster also. Ice baths are good for recovering, and making sure you have enough electrolytes and are properly hydrated will go a long way also.

[Colin]

I found that running 1 or 2 miles the day after a marathon or any race for that matter helps speed up recovery. Just take it slow and easy. It gets the blood flowing to your legs and loosens you up so you're not so stiff. Then following day I take completly off while the rest of the week I take easy but start to build back up.

[Andrew Chandler]

Take the day off. If you need to... run on the grass on the inside of the track for 20 minutes for a few days and do something like low impact biking or elliptical for a bit too.

[Pablo]

I pretty much never run the day after marathons or even a week after. I usually do some biking but nothing to intense; just some light riding to loosen things up and even then it's not daily. Swimming is also a really good alternative if you're compelled to exercise. I also like to do a lot of bouldering/rock climbing for the same reason. Unless you've got a grueling race schedule and absolutely have to be running, definitely take the time to recover. Personally I don't think that there's enough advocacy for rest with no running, but that's just me.

[Damian]

Usually after a hard race I'll take the next 2 days off to recover. Day 3 will be a light run, bike or swim. Day 4 I'll pick up the intensity a bit. Depending on how day 4 went, I'll either take day 5 off or be back to my regular routine.