You Are Capable of More Than You Think
This is Go Pro footage of one of my favorite little trails, Owl’s Roost. This is also part of the Triple Lakes 40 Mile Race that I will be running in October of 2017. It is a tricky little trail that takes a toll on the legs due to the hills. In Part 2, I highlight the more difficult part of the trail.
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Music Credit: Artist: James Henry Song: Tribal Meats Label: Oleeva Records
In the last blog post “The Four Inputs of Recovery”, I spoke about the four areas that cause the need or impact the length of recovery: base fitness, activity intensity, nutrition/hydration, and rest. In this post, I want to address the recovery process itself and how you can determine the duration of your recovery. Unfortunately, this is not an exact science, but again, understanding the process will allow you the opportunity to create a successful recovery plan.
Recovery is tricky because you need to recover during your training, and after your races. Depending upon your race schedule, you may have time requirements that force you to minimize your downtime as well. In fact, you should plan your race schedule with recovery in mind, if you want to avoid injury and perform at your best. That in and of itself is another blog topic! For now, let’s focus on the recovery process after an intense training session or race. I look at the recovery process itself in three parts.
Nutrition
Assuming that your nutrition is fairly clean in general as you are preparing for a race, I’ll discuss nutrition during your run and immediately after your run. During your run or race, if you take in the proper amount of protein, electrolytes, and carbs, you will help to minimize the amount of damage that you do to your body and create the foundation for a quicker and higher quality recovery. As an example, if you do not hydrate well and ignore your carb intake during a long run, the potential to bonk or significantly deplete your glycogen levels and dehydrate increases a great deal. If you put your body in to a great deficit, obviously you will need a longer recovery and will need to make sure that you get the electrolytes, carbs, protein, amino acids, and nutrients back in as quickly as possible. On the flip side, if you do ensure that you are replacing all of those essential nutrients sufficiently during your run, you will probably recover much quicker. Check out this post on nutrition during your runs here: Handy Little Hydration and Calorie Guidelines by Distance.
After an intense run or race, it is crucial to get some carbs and protein down within 30 minutes to an hour. Your body is craving those things and this window will allow your body to efficiently process the protein and start to help with muscle repair. I know some people who prefer to do this via foods, like a banana with peanut butter on toast, or some type of whole wheat pasta with chicken. For me, I like the convenience of a recovery drink. I use SIS REGO recovery powder and one serving provides 23 grams of carbs, 20 grams of protein, and a bunch of amino acids and electrolytes. I am not sponsored by this company, but I can tell you that compared to most other recovery drinks I have tried, these taste the best and have provided the best recovery for me. Flavors are chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla.
Rest
There are two types of rest in my opinion. There is “active” rest, such as walking, yoga, and low intensity cycling, and there is “non-active” rest such as massage, sitting with your legs elevated, icing, baths, and sleep. Both are very important.
In regard to active rest, after an intense effort, your body may feel sore due to lactic acid build up, and moving in a gentle manner, can help to flush the lactic acid and improve circulation. This will aid in the recovery process as improved blood flow delivers oxygen to your healing muscles. The majority of the time, after an intense effort, I feel much better if I move around, then if I just sit still. My favorite “active” recovery is simply walking. This is usually a great opportunity for me to take a nice long walk with my wife and spend some quality time getting some exercise and catching up on the day’s events. Good for the body and soul!
Non-active rest is just as important. Doing things to reduce inflammation, such as icing or soaking in a bath, go a long way towards you feeling more relaxed, and recharging mentally. There is always a lot of discussion around these types of activities and you can throw yoga and massage in to the discussion as well. There are camps of people who say there is no scientific proof that stretching and massage help runners recover, and there is a group of people who say that it absolutely does. Here are my two cents on the matter. You have to try these types of activities out for yourself, and if it helps YOU, then it helps. I find that all of these activities help me and I enjoy them. That in and of itself goes a long way.
Finally, there is sleep. For the most part, you won’t find many arguments here. The overwhelming majority of people agree that sleep is the time when the body recovers, and as athletes that are pushing the limits of their body, this is absolutely essential. I try and get at least seven hours of sleep on average per night. There always seems to be things that pop up and prevent me from achieving this goal, but honestly, that is on me. When I am disciplined enough, I seem to get this in just like I do my runs.
Duration
The ultimate question! How long? The worst answer. It depends. Sorry, but this is the truth. It depends on all of the factors that we discussed in the last two posts. General nutrition, level of intensity, rest before, during, and after. Etc. But here is the thing. You have to experiment and learn your body. One of the greatest things that I have discovered over the last three years is that through this process of becoming an ultra-runner, I am extremely in tune with my body. I know when I need to eat more or less. I know when I am tired but can still train, or exhausted and need extra rest. I even know the difference between a minor niggle that I can train through and an injury. Some people seem to be able to get by with very little rest, while others need more time, and that is OK. Work on figuring it out and stick with what works for you.
I have a thumb rule I’d like to share though. If I have to choose between an extra work out or extra rest as a race approaches, I always take the extra rest. Here’s why. I would prefer to show up at a race well rested and as injury free as possible, then toe the line injured and have to try and figure out how to get through the race. At that point in the game, your fitness level is either where it needs to be or not and one more workout won’t change that, but an extra day of rest may well be worth it.
Conclusion
While everyone is built different and may require different recovery periods, the levers are basically the same. So, if you review the last two posts and really get a grip on what causes the need to recover and the components of a recovery, you will have everything you need to ensure that you create a successful recovery plan FOR YOU. Don’t be afraid to make adjustments based on how you feel, as you learn more about your body, you’ll get better at knowing its boundaries and needs. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me for questions or suggestions on this topic!
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I get a lot of questions around recovery. How long should I recover after a marathon? Is it ok to run two days later? Three days later? Should I take a week off? What should I eat? Etc. This is another one of those “It depends.” Kind of answers. I’ll break this topic up in to several posts, and I’d like to start with what I’ll call the “inputs” of recovery. What are the things that cause us to need to recover in the first place and determine the length of that recovery?
Base Fitness
This is the foundation for everything. If you are a beginner and have maybe only run 10 miles a week for a short period of time, then racing a 5k or 10k may leave you very sore and require a significant recovery period. On the other hand, if you are someone who is training for an ultra-marathon and have years of experience and average weekly mileage of 50 or 60 plus, you are probably doing back to back runs of 20 miles or more every weekend and require little if any recovery for that distance. Basically, the better your fitness level and the more miles that you have run, usually equates to quicker/better recovery periods for various distances. Better Base Fitness = Faster Recovery
Intensity
The second input is the intensity of the activity that you are recovering from. If you jog 10k as an EASY workout, it takes a very different toll on your body than if you raced a 10k as hard as you could, trying to achieve a PB. If you do a 25-mile long run, it has a very different impact on the body than a 10k training run. Runs with elevation are harder than runs that are flat. The list can go on and on, but the point is that the more intense the activity, the more recovery you may need. And I would be remiss to not once again highlight the link between base fitness and intensity. If your fitness level is high, you can push your intensity level up and still recover fairly quick and the opposite is true. If your fitness level is low you either need to lower your intensity level or you will need to recover longer after an intense effort.
Nutrition/Hydration
The third input is nutrition and hydration. If you are in a training cycle and have been eating clean, ensuring that you have sufficient complex carbs, and maintaining good levels of hydration, this will all help with a quicker and better recovery. Your body will have all of the calories and nutrients it needs to repair the damage from your effort. If your nutrition and hydration is less than optimal, it will not only have an impact on your performance, but on your recovery as well. I documented this in the post on “fitness interrupters” using myself as the guinea pig. I was amazed at how quickly my body responded to poor nutrition and lack of sleep while I was on vacation. Which brings us to my last input…
Rest
Getting sufficient rest before and after a run will facilitate a better and quicker recovery. To this day, this is still what I personally struggle with the most. Being a husband, father, runner, blogger, etc. means that I have to be disciplined to achieve this goal, and quite frankly, I am not always as disciplined here as I need to be. However, I speak from experience, and can assure you that when I sleep seven plus hours on average, I feel better during my runs as well as after them.
So, there you have it. These are the “inputs” in to your recovery needs. In some follow up posts I’ll speak to details around what I do to try and facilitate recovery specifically, but knowing these inputs is a great first step in to creating effective recovery plans. As for me, I plan on getting to bed early tonight so I can hit my goal of seven hours of sleep. Wait, it’s Monday night and Monday Night Football is on, hmmmm…
I hope that this post and this blog helps you achieve your dreams! To receive new post notifications, newsletters, and post previews, please SUBSCRIBE!
For behind the scenes photos and comments on my training and personal life, follow me on Instagram: joe_the_runner Strava: Joe Randene YouTube: Joe Runner
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While I was perusing Instagram the other day, I came across a funny video that Elisa Kurylowicz (@elisakurylowicz) posted, of two running monks that she came across on one of her runs. These were two monks that were in their robes and sandals running and smiling. In fact, one of them had his hands in the air and was waving them like he just didn’t care, while he was running! Probably because he didn’t. My initial reaction was; FUNNY!
However, while I was running, I started to think about this some more and it hit me like a brick; this is badassery at its highest level! I mean, these guys are monks, and you would think that they would be off doing monk stuff somewhere, but they want to run. They didn’t have running shoes and moisture wicking clothing, they had robes and sandals! But they wanted to run, so they ran.
They didn’t paint themselves in to a box and say, “Well, we are monks, so that means we cannot do anything else.” No, they became running-monks! How frickin awesome is that? So, that got me thinking about how so many people limit themselves and create their own boxes. “I’m a (parent, full time worker, full time student, etc.), so I cannot be a (runner, painter, blogger, badass, etc.) BS! Every day I hear people say “I wish I could run 10 miles. I wish I had more money.” When I hear this, what I really hear is “I am not willing to do what it takes to run 10 miles. I am not willing to do what it takes to make more money.”
You can do anything that you want to do if you really want to do it! You want to open up a bakery, but you are a busy parent, sit down and figure it out. Become the best damn parent-bakery owner in the world. Don’t make excuses, make plans. One of your lifetime goals is to run a marathon, but you work 50 to 60 hours a week. Guess what? At every single marathon, there are finishers who have full time jobs and are parents, just like you. Don’t paint yourself in to that box! Go be a running-monk.
I understand that this is an oversimplified explanation, BUT, it is what many people, including myself really do. My life is just as hectic as the next guys. I am married, I work full-time, I have a family, AND I run 50 to 70 miles every week to prepare for my races. Not to mention working on this blog! I realized that I am a running-monk. And you know what? That’s just frickin awesome!
I hope that this post and this blog helps you achieve your dreams! To receive new post notifications, newsletters, and post previews, please SUBSCRIBE!
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Honestly, I cannot believe that I even need to write about this, but the evidence that this happens is all over the place, even my daughter’s face. And it is truly disappointing. However, this is the platform that I have and I feel that I need to use it and speak up. The harassment of women runners MUST stop. Unfortunately, I will address the obvious, men harassing women, AND the not so obvious, women harassing women.
Doing what I do, I am all over social media, I get e-mails from followers, and I see comments on my blog and other blogs all of the time. Recently I have noticed a disturbing trend, and that is women commenting on being cat called, stared at, and even confronted or assaulted by men, while they are out on their runs. This MUST stop. As a man, I am imploring other men to just keep their mouths shut when they see a women runner. These women are out there trying to get their workout in and the last thing they want or need is a stranger distracting them. At best, you are just being a nuisance, and at worst you are making the runner feel intimidated and scared.
Obviously, if you are disturbed enough to assault a woman, this message won’t matter, but if you are a guy who thinks he is being funny by whistling or shouting, just don’t! These women runners are dressed the same way as their male counterparts, and they are dressed so that they can run without chaffing, feeling constricted, or overheating. They are not dressed this way because they want your attention. Leave them alone. If you want to impress and meet women runners, go vegan, buy a pair of running shoes, and go run a couple of miles. Not only will you improve your chances of meeting some of these wonderful people in a constructive way, you’ll gain a hell of a lot of respect for them and what they do. Because running is no joke and it is certainly not easy.
Now, women harassing women. Really? Based on what I just wrote above, isn’t it obvious that women runners need all the support they can get and that other women should be their biggest supporters? This was a comment that was on Fitbit, “While I was out for my run today, a woman yelled out of a moving car at me to put some clothes on.” There was more to it, but that is how it started. It blew me away. A woman harassing a woman runner! I wonder if that lady ever tried running 5 miles in 90-degree heat and 80% humidity? I wonder if she had seen a shirtless male runner if she would have yelled the same thing? Here’s an idea, shut up and keep your opinion to yourself.
I hope that I didn’t offend any women by writing this, because obviously, I am not a woman and cannot put myself truly in their shoes. Being a man however, I can say that I am embarrassed that there are still men out there that are treating women this way. And as a father of four women, I realize that this is a serious issue. Things like this do not get better unless people are willing to talk about them, so I joined in the conversation. For what it’s worth…
One last thing, if I am ever witness to this type of behavior, I will confront it, and I am encouraging everyone else to do the same. Things don’t change unless you’re willing to change them.
I hope that this post and this blog helps you achieve your dreams! To receive new post notifications, newsletters, and post previews, please SUBSCRIBE!
For behind the scenes photos and comments on my training and personal life, follow me on Instagram: joe_the_runner Strava: Joe Randene YouTube Channel
Questions, comments, feedback? Please leave them in the comments section BELOW and we can have a discussion!
