Marathon Recovery

[Saralexis]

What do you do to recover? I've taken two weeks off on the advice of my physio and then started up slow - this week a 2k, a 5k and a 10k long run. Feels fine. I'm wondering how long I need to get up to proper long runs again... do I need to act as if I've never done them before or can I push the increase a bit? I have a half marathon at the end of June, which I'm happy to take easy but I'd like to be able to enjoy it. The half I did in marathon training was so much fun having got used to 15-16 mile long runs every week.

[misswobble Marathon]

Just to give you some idea, you could download a free myasics plan as that gives you all the distances, timings etc from start to finish. It would then give you some idea on how best to build up. You don't have to follow it but it would help answer your query

They base their plan on sex, age, distance you want to train for and you are asked what time you did your last event in. It then asks how many days a week you want to train and stop what intensity, e.g. Easy, average or hard. It will then give you a projected finish time and a detailed plan. Even the easy plans are hard though 😃

[ju-ju- Marathon]

Wow well done you.... I took a week off after my first and then eased myself back gradually. Well done too!! 😎

[Tomas Marathon]

Sounds like you've done the right thing with taking two weeks off. Well done.

After my first I tried to rush straight into longish runs again and burned out completely. I'm doing my second tomorrow and have a HM booked for five weeks later, so I intend for my weekly distances to be around 10,20,30,40,50 for the next five weeks. I hope that's gentle enough to not mess things up again.

[benwill Marathon]

I would say take it easy, your fitness doesn't drop that quickly as you would expect. I would see how you get on with a couple of 5k and 10ks. But take a couple of weeks off and eat cake.