My Stages of Recovery
As I work on recovering from my slate of races, I thought I’d share how I do recovery.
The first stage is exhaustion. Races take it out of me because they’re usually at a higher intensity than my training pace. As a natural result, when I’m done, I’m d-o-n-e.
In the hours after a race, I try to do a lot of mini-movements addressing sore areas. I might look kinda funny stretching my calf or pressing into my quads, but it helps to reduce overall stiffness.
The morning after a race, I’m always stiff as a board. Soreness is fully revealed and those areas turn into little stretching projects throughout the day. I do a 2 mile walk at a moderate pace, and that has proven to be a huge part of recovery for me.
On day two, things are quite a bit better (assuming I had a good training block going into my races, and this was the case this Spring). Still some lingering soreness in the muscles, but everything else feels pretty good. I can go about my regular activities with only a hint of soreness in problem areas. Another two miles of walking helps to finish things off.
By day three, I feel normal again going about my daily routine. I could run on this day, but it will feel pretty garbage with no training benefits, so I walk again - maybe 5K or so.
Days four through seven, I feel good enough to run, but limit things to a one mile walk, one or two mile run, and one mile walk.
After a week, I’m back to my regular training program and doing whatever is on the calendar.
When you add it up, the week after a race, I still wind up logging 15 to 20 miles, but most of it is walking.
And, everyday, I stretch my problem areas. This is unstructured, but mixed in throughout the day - often several times a day I’ll be stretching something. After this race cycle, it’s my lower calves and lower quads, but everything else feels good.
After a week, I might not be fully recovered because there can be some lingering muscle weakness, but that usually works itself out with short runs with increased frequency - instead of a long run, I might split it into two or three short runs.
My norm is 3 runs a week and between training blocks, I like to do a 5K, 10K, and half marathon for those three runs. The other days might include hiking or walking or straight up rest.
As an older human, I like a day of ease between runs. Some do better getting after it everyday, but I do not.
How does this translate to hiking?
For the weekend warriors in the room that punch the clock at work all week and get on trail over the weekends for big adventures, you might want to work in a recovery walk or two during the work week. You’ll likely feel better faster.
Add a few more miles throughout the week, and you’ll improve your endurance level - providing you with the ability to go farther on the weekend or do the same mileage with less fatigue.
Two miles a day during the work week adds 10 miles to your endurance fitness. Those short walks in the neighborhood always pay dividends when you’re out on trail.
As an example, let’s say you walk 2 miles a day after work 5 days a week and do 10 miles of hiking on the weekend. That’s 20 miles for the week. If you do that over a period of months, you’ll be able to double your hiking mileage.
And just like Double Mint gum, double your pleasure, double your fun, double mint hike-a-thon?!?! Meh, something like that.
You get the idea. If you want to get on trail for more time and miles with less soreness, add some recovery to your week and then add some endurance fitness building while you’re at it.