Recovering from a marathon takes time and there’s a little bit of science and strategic planning involved with it. “They” say for every mile raced, it takes a day to recover, and I find there’s a lot of truth to that. After running a marathon (26.2 miles) I plan on about a month to recover and feel back to my old self (for the most part since sometimes it takes a little longer for the speed to return). And the the shorter the race, the less time it takes for me to recover.
Of course there are many factors that will determine how fast (or slow) you recover from any race. For instance: how hard you pushed yourself, your age, how well you fueled during and after the run, and how conditioned your body is to racing that particular distance. With anything, each race’s recovery can be different as there are always varying factors outside of your running life, so keep in mind these are generalizations. But hopefully this at least give you an idea of how to approach your return to running after a marathon.
Recovering from shorter races (5Ks and 10Ks in particular) aren’t quite as tricky, but the marathon is one of those distances that takes a little more calculated planning. It isn’t as easy as hopping back into training right away even if you take a full week off. It is important to incorporate runs slow and keep the intensity low for a bit until your legs fully recover. Otherwise, you could risk burn-out, fatigue, and/or a potential injury.
Most of the time doing a ‘reverse taper’ is a good way to approach your return to running safely after a marathon. It takes into account your mileage going into the marathon and then slowly incorporates mileage back in.
What is a reverse taper?
A reverse taper is taking your weekly mileage going into the marathon and mirroring it in your return to running after completing a marathon.
For instance, if your weekly mileage the three weeks leading up to the marathon were 40 miles, 30 miles, and finally 20 miles the last week, then in theory, you could run 20 miles, 30 miles, and then 40 miles coming off the marathon.
Of course this is a very general guideline and will vary greatly for each person, but hopefully you get the idea.
Here’s a look at my reverse taper for the marathon I just ran in August. Keep in mind that this isn’t done exactly to the guidelines laid out nor should it be! This is what I did, but with each marathon I’ve done something slightly different. After most of my marathons, I lay low for a couple of months because I don’t have an upcoming marathon or race, but now with CIM (California International Marathon) coming up in December, I had to keep at it and try to return to training as quickly as possible.
Prior to my marathon in August, I topped out at 73 miles. The four weeks leading into the marathon were: 73, 68, 51, and 54 miles (28 miles without the marathon). Then, after the marathon, this is what my mileage looked like:
Week 1 post-marathon – 2 miles (one 20 minute shake-out run)
Week 2 post-marathon – 11 miles
Week 3 post-marathon – 44 miles
Week 4 post-marathon – 50 miles
Week 5 post-marathon – 59 miles
Week 6 post-marathon – 70 miles
Week 7 post-marathon – 65 miles (cutting back a little to stay healthy)
As you can see, I was even more conservative in my return to running post-marathon this time around. I was still taking 1-2 days off a week in those first few weeks, so my mileage stayed lower than a true mirror image of my build-up.
I’ve also done a return to running based off percentages too. I will take my highest mileage prior to the marathon and run 25%, 50%, and 75% before returning to 100% training volume.
For this marathon’s recovery, the mileage of those percentages would have looked like this:
25% of 73 miles = 18 miles
50% of 73 miles = 36 miles
75% of 73 miles = 55 miles
If anything, this was closer to what I actually did.
Hopefully that gives you a couple of ideas how to approach your recovery after a marathon. Like I said before, there are so many factors that plays a role in your recovery from a marathon, so what works for me may be completely different for you. As always, listen to your body and do what feels right for you and your situation.
