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Obviously, ultras come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. You can be just above marathon distance to multi day events and there’ll be tweaks and changes to the strategy dependant upon the length of the race, the type of terrain, time on feet as well as the conditions on the day.
Further, it’ll also be important to consider your hydration and nutrition during the event (I’ll do a separate post on that).
Immediately After The Event
OK, so before we go any further let’s start with BE PROUD OF YOURSELF. So often we are already eye-balling the next thing or seeing where we could have done better. Stop it already. Crossing that finish line is EPIC and we should take a moment to recognise it!
Where possible make sure that you have food & hydration available for you at the end. We could talk about it being about a certain split of protein and carbohydrate and BOTH are incredibly important at the end of your run – protein to start the restock of your glycogen stores and protein to start to repair muscles. I find that it’s about eating what you WANT! It might be that you pack something for the finish line that you know is waiting for you and that can help you to get through those final miles (** a cherry & almond blondie 😋) or you may have a selection of things that you can dive into what you fancy or the smell of chips might get you going as you approach the finish line and there’s a chip shop in sightline.
Make sure you’re hydrating too. I have to say that after my last ultra I fell madly in love with a 1 & 1/2 litre bottle of cold Evian and Tango’s beautiful flavours of Dark Berry & Watermelon & Strawberry. Again, whatever floats your boat. Lots of people are a huge advocate of beer at the end of an ultra!
We pop some much energy into our inflight nutrition that we often forget about the finish line, this is more of a heads up to remember your finish line goodie bag or to be able to access nutrition & hydration quite quickly.
If possible it’s best not to sit for long periods at the end. I know that this can’t always be avoided as often it’s about getting home or to your accommodation and some form of transport is needed to get you there. If possible keep moving your legs, walk a little way where you can and just allow a little recovery. It’s likely that when you do stop it’s going to hurt your feet to stand again and will take a little bit to get those legs moving.
Attend to your body. It might be that your feet need a little attention or it might be as simple as adding extra layers so that you don’t get cold. I like to have a bath as soon as I’m able but immediately afterwards I know I will get cold VERY quickly and need to get clothes on sharpish.
A Little Later
The recent stat I read was that 68% of ultra finishers suffer from upper respitatory tract infections within 2 weeks of finishing their event. SO, recovery is more that just getting your body ready to run again, it’s about protecting your health and IS AS IMPORTANT as your training pre-event.
Sleep – it might not be as easy as you think it is initially to get to sleep. You may have restless legs, the covers on your bed may feel sore on your feet, you may feel generally fidgety. You might also have the night sweats. Again, this is normal and if you’re a woman doesn’t mean you’re having a menopausal night! Try to keep yourself as cool and comfortable as possible. This is really normal. It might be the next night or even the night after before you feel like you get some truly restful sleep. Make sure you’ve structured the week after the event to allow for this.
Hydration – You may have gathered that I’m a bit of a hydration obsessive. It’s the one thing that can make you feel a whole tonne better or not with just a tiny smidge of attention. Keeping hydrated post event is so important.
Nutrition – I find that my body will often tell me what it needs during the period after an ultra. It will be craving certain foods/food types. This IS NOT the time to reduce the calories because you’ve reduced your training. I try to get back into my normal nutritional rhythm as soon as possible, ensure that I’m conscious of consuming protein to aid recovery of those muscles and re-fill those glycogen stores with yummy carbs. Listen to your body, work with the cravings in the initial days of recovery.
Rest ~ yup, it’s important to rest your body and REALLY listen to your body. I’m not talking about paying lip service to it here and feeling like you really should be getting back into a training routine in record quick time. Often people say that you should wait until your body is ready then wait a couple more days after that. You are also going to have to return to run with slowly. Think about a reverse taper, you want the volume and intensity to be lower and build it back up steadily.
Move – well, I’ve gone all contradictory straight away haven’t I! Rest but move! Moving is really important. I make sure that I’m walking and allowing my body to get moving again as soon as possible after the event. The day after I’ll aim to get a few walks in throughout the day to keep the muscles moving and to negate some of the stiffness. I also like to take a gentle swim 48 hours or so later so that I’m moving my body in a slightly different way but I’m also using the muscles without impact.
Mindset
One of the biggest and most neglected is the mindset of recovery! You may feel a little angsty after your ultra, it might be that you don’t really know what to do with yourself. Cognitively you may feel a wee bit compromised. Be patient with yourself over this initial period. You’re refuelling, rest and hydration will mean that this feeling of unease will pass fairly quickly.
There’s also the post race blues. Your ultra may have been something you’ve been working towards for a long time. It might have been the focus to all your training for some time and then has taken up a lot of mental bandwidth for the weeks leading up to the event as you prep and now it’s done. It’s understandable that there feels like a gap and a void. Yup, you can have another event lined up for you to have on your radar to move towards once you’ve recovered. Equally, allowing yourself to feel proud of your achievements, doing a race debrief so that you can remember all the bits and relive the event/learn the lessons BUT also focus on the positives can be massively helpful. You can have some nice things lined up for after the event. Whether that’s time with family, a holiday, activities that you may have avoided during training, time with friends etc etc to allow you a little mental downtime.
I think that foreseeing and knowing that there may be fluctuations in your mood immediately give you the heads up that it may be incoming so that anticipation stops it side swiping your feet from under you. Knowledge that it’s potentially incoming is power to see it for what it is.
The Most Important…
One of the most important ones is PATIENCE. Now, I know that patience probably isn’t one of the strongest personality traits that you possess BUT it’s imperative. Think about what you would advise someone else. If you’re friend/partner/child had just finished the event that you’ve done then what would you be encouraging them to do? Making it objective rather than subjective will often give you a must better insight into what you need to be doing.
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