bad post marathon recovery, what is going on with me?

In my experience it takes 1-2 months to recover from a marathon. Even if you are feeling great after a week or two there is still damage that your body is trying to heal. I don't think pace matters as much as the fact that you just covered 26+ miles on pavement.

You've got to remember that until you recover and start training again you are in marathon form. Meaning that you will probably underperform for most other distances.

Give it a couple more weeks, you'll be fine.

Thank you for perpetuating the LR bullsh#t:'Hi, I'm a 'slow' female runner who's time would WIN 99% of the 5K road races in the country....'

standByYou wrote:

Hi all:

I am a pretty slow female runner (18:20 5K)......

you missed the point of the post?

I mean slow by letsrun standards.

Not at all, I just love how some of those on LR have to start out a post w/ complete bullsh#t. We all know that an 18:30 5K for a female is hardly slow. Is it going to win a national championship? no, but being that it would WIN just about every weekend 5K in the country, I'd hardly consider it slow.Starting off a post as such just degrades what they're trying to say. IMHO.

maybe wrote:

you missed the point of the post?

You went into a marathon with an injury. You raced two weeks later, and again a week after that.

It's not the least bit surprising that you feel trashed. I'm with lohalloran: you need to give yourself more recovery time. (And try not to compare yourself with others who seem to be recovering more quickly.)

Good luck.

I positive split like you ran will take longer to recover from than a good race. On top of that, the two races you ran shortly after the marathon surely got in the way of recovery. It is completely normal that your legs still feel trashed. Take a break. Winter is coming, there are no races for a few months, you can afford to get some rest; in fact, you need to get some rest.

Is this your first marathon?

Everyone is different, that being said, I believe it takes a long time to recover properly. Longer than many people are willing to take.

For me, and I am older, it takes a solid 2 months for full recovery. I will feel quite good after 2 weeks but running marathon pace takes the effort of running (Daniels') threshold pace. Running easy is fine.

I monitor HR all the time and my HR will be 10-15 bpm higher (then just before the marathon) for 3-4 weeks and gradually taper back to normal for another 3-4 weeks.

I have to run slow and short, like working the taper backwards. Any hard efforts or too long and the fatigue will show up quickly. I schedule some down time (1 or 2 weeks) and then it may look like: a 15 mi week, 25-30, 40, 50 etc. I don't race for 4-6 weeks and when I do I find my HR will be very high for that race even if I feel good.

And then there is my friend, a few years younger, who can run 3 marathons in 6 weeks. All in the 2:50 range. No way I can do this.

StandByYou,

I have found (the hard way) that crash-and-burn marathons are much more destructive on me than PR races. This is made worse by the fact that, like you, I have come out of my two worst crash-and-burn positive split marathons feeling as though they were so slow as to suggest that I should not have to go through my usually careful post-race recovery. It's hard not to overdo following a bad marathon because you look at your finish time and recognize that it is the kind of time you could run relatively easily as a training run. The thing I forget when I do that is that I did not run it as a training run - I ran it as a race. Secondly, I forget that I ran that time because it was the best I could do that day in the way I ran, and it was by no stretch of the imagination an easy effort.

What I'm trying to say is that I think you need to stop racing for a while, take some time off, or at least some time to run really easy, make sure you are doing things like eating well, getting massage, and getting sleep, and go easy on yourself. You will be back and better than ever, but if you don't listen to your body, which is clearly telling you that it is beaten up, you are very likely to wind up with an injury on top of a bruised ego.

First, congratulations on running a 3:02. Not too bad with walking in the last 10K. You crashed and ran 10K on some damaged muscles which will take some more recovery time for. You already have tried racing in this un-recovered state, which will push back your recovery time even more. You pushed hard, even if you felt it was slow.

In my case, 2 months seems to be the normal recovery. Sometimes I'll feel great within 2-3 weeks and get back into it, only to have my body crash back down or get some kind of injury.

Ignore your running partners for a few weeks and don't get talked into any other races. Trust me, I know what that's like and I HATE them sometimes ;) for not feeling as crappy I as do weeks after a race. Even my coach talked me into doing workouts too soon, which I now regret. I'm also in recovery mode. Came back with hard workouts 3 weeks after the marathon and now 2 weeks later I'm still paying back.

Take it easy. Do as many slow runs as you feel, but do not push the pace. You'll notice that you'll start to feel bette and naturally the pace will start to pick up and then when your mileage is back to where it was and your regular pace is back to where it was, you can add workouts again.

Thank you very much for all your valuable inputs.

justsomegirl: You are totally right. I am racing trying to heal my bruised ego, but instead I am trashing my body. I simply need to admit that I am in worse shape than I want to believe.

the comeback queen: Thank you for the advice. I just have to ignore other people, who somehow made PBs one week after the marathon. I also need to ignore coaches/friends who tell me to work harder when my body tells me it is really tired. Having sore, stiff and dead legs is definitely not a sign of "not enough speed work". I will take it easy until my legs are feeling fresh again.

This was not my first marathon. For my previous marathons, I did not crash & burn like this one and the recovery was OK. We are always told to "listen to your body", but it is so easy to let ego/emotion get in the way. My head wants to think I am still in top condition, but my body clearly is not.

A good rule of thumb for recovering from any race is that you should not be really ready for another race or another legitimately hard workout for the number of days following the race as number of miles the race was. In other words, you raced 26.2 miles, so you shouldn't try anything strenuous (training-wise, easy running is fine) for about 4 weeks after a marathon.

Last spring, I ran a marathon and got all excited afterward and tried to return to full-bore training two weeks later. I struggled and totally crashed and burned two weeks later.

The other thing to remember is that when you do start back up from easy running to regular training, your fitness will be down because of the taper for the marathon and the recovery time afterward.

18:20 5K or 37xx 10k predict a marathon in the 2:54 to 2:57 range. If your 20 mile split was way under 2:14 that may have set you up for the tough 10K at the end.

Take a look at fuel management durung the race. Were you able to get the fluids and gel needed?? Try more gel, maybe.

Expect recovery from an all out marathon effort to be a 2 month experience. Your friends only recovered faster because they did not have to "go to the well" to finish.

Past experience has taught me that an all out marathon takes longer to recover from than a submaximal 50 miler.

Be patient, respect your body's message and the marathon.