Recovery

This very interesting discussion and reply was taken from Shawn McDonald's great web site. (He site is listed in the link area)

Thanks Shawn!

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100 mile recovery (reply/suggestions)

Here's a question I'd like to pose, mainly for discussion purposes, but also to help some of us "strategically recover" from an ultra run.

How do you recover from a long, hard effort?

We runners place so much emphasis on training that the recovery from an event is virtually ignored in the discussions. It is my opinion that you need to train your body, not *only* to withstand the event, but you need to train your body to *recover* from that event, too. Thus, you need to "train your recovery" just as you "train your effort".

What are the strategies that you use to speed your recovery from a long, hard event? How do you "train your recovery"?

I'd be especially interested in hearing from any of you Grand Slam finishers out there. How do you train your body to recover sufficiently enough to complete 4-100 milers in 13 weeks?

Jay Hodde jhodde@ecn.purdue.edu

Hi everyone,

Jay has hit upon a topic that few talk about, and in my opinion, is a key to running ultras over the long haul. That being recovery from tough races. Injuries and burnout often happen after pushing yourself in a race, or after doing a series of ultras over a short period of time. One has to be very careful to not try to get back too soon or to "punish" yourself if you had a race you were not happy with.

Your recovery plan depends on how long you want to have following the race, before your next race. I suggest a minimum time of 3 weeks recovery time for a 50 miler, and 6 weeks for a 100 miler. That does not mean running a hard race after that time, it just means getting back close to the normal amount and frequency of training. During the recovery period, run only 2-4 days per week, and do two other cross training days (at most). Take at least one (and preferably two) days per week completely off. Following a 50 or 100 miler, in the week after a good plan might be:

days after event activity duration

1 walking 30 mins. morning/ 30 mins. evening

2 walking 30 mins. morning

biking 30 mins. evening

3 off

4 biking 45 mins. evening

5 walking 30 mins. morning

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