Recovering From An Endurance Event
My Takeaways After 14 Years Of Ultramarathon Events
I don’t intend to outline a bullet proof path, as there likely isn’t one that I would be confident enough to endorse wholesale, but rather share with you what variables I focus on, how I prioritize them when it comes to bouncing back from a goal event, and beginning the next phase of preparation.
Here are the main variables I consider:
Weight of event relative to other events on the calendar
Weight of event and training fatigue (physical and mental) over the previous training cycles
Quality of adherence to recovery protocol post event.
Balancing mental and physical fatigue
All events are not held equal. This just makes sense if you plan to peak for certain events, but not others. Some endurance athletes prefer to not use training events, in which case this will not apply, but most of the endurance runners I know and work with do prefer to have what I will call training events or B events. These are simply events that allow you to practice all the unique specifics of event day, but not take on the training load fatigue and need for a full taper and recovery block. I typically will pick two or maybe three priority events each year, where I plan to go through the full cycle of preparation. Throughout my ultra career, I have often included 3-5 additional ultras in preparations, as well as a few sub-ultra distance events.
This is all to say that if it is your priority event, the likelihood of being more conservative with your return to training is going to be higher. However, the pace at which you are ready to compete again may range. The compounding effect of training cycles, with enough recovery in between, is a beautiful thing. Take me for example, in 2019 I had the first half of my year structured around racing the San Diego 100 Mile, and the second half of the year was going to be focused on the Spartathlon 153 mile event in Greece. A late year announcement that opened up an opportunity to do a very controlled event in the Pettit Center (Olympic Training Facility in Milwaukee, WI) became public well after I had this plan in place. It is a very unique set up, so I agreed to do the 12-hour timed event, with a hopeful inclusion of the 100 mile distance within it, as a tune up for my preparation for the Spartathlon. At the time, I didn’t believe I had a long enough ramp up to be optimally prepared for the Pettit Center, and also didn’t want to bail on my strategy for the Spartathlon, so I began that training cycle with the Pettit Center as a B event. As I returned to training on the flats after months of trail time, I assumed I would need a thorough cycle of training to feel ready for anything similar to what I had done on short loop timed events in the past and simply did not have the timeline to support that for the Pettit Center. As my early stages of prep began, I started to realize I was not only ahead of schedule physically, but very hungry to take on the mental hurdle of monotonously looping around a track for 12-hours. When weighing the mental side, I do not just consider the event itself. I consider if I am mentally prepared to do the specifics in training. For track timed events, this means heading to the track for the long run peaking phase. In other words, 5-6 hour weekend blocks round and round on the track during the final phase of training. I suspect the time away from the flats and the track while preparing for SD 100 left me with a mental reserve compared to what I had normalized the few cycles prior to SD 100. If you want a good laugh, here is a sample from my strava account of one of these runs. I went on to have a great, albeit abbreviated build up to what ended up producing at the time two world records for the 100 mile distance and 12-hour timed event.
What does this mean? What it means is that although you may not be able to perfectly predict how soon you can get back to training, or how good you may feel when you do, there are some things to consider and do in order to tease it out. I believe there are times, or opportunities to take on some additional risk, but you should be aware.
First, be honest about your previous training cycles and number of events. How much time did you really take off from running in between them? How excited are you to put in the work when training is at its hardest? Are you excited now, but will look back in three months wishing you had given yourself one or two more weeks?
I like to scaffold post goal event recovery around two weeks, followed by a gradual return to structure. It is important that when putting this timeline into practice, you ask yourself the above questions, and if you have had a history of getting back too soon, lean conservative if the next step is in question.
The first week is all about recovery. This generally means 2-3 days of as little movement as possible with ample amounts of food, fluids, and sleep. Generally, you can move if it feels good, but I find during these first days, even a short walk generates fatigue, and personally I wear out very quickly from what otherwise would be a passive task. These first three days are big for bouncing back, and focusing on maximizing quality around the three things mentioned above (food, sleep, fluids). I don’t suspect there is a silver bullet diet for everyone when it comes to bouncing back, but having some structure around whatever you do is wise. It can be easy to just say, “screw it” and go wild. It is likely you will need ample calories, but if you just eat loads of junk and alcohol post event, you can likely expect a bit of a slower return. You will be hungry, so eat when this occurs, but don’t take it as a license to just plow through a family sized bag of chips. Take your new found free time to cook some delicious dishes that are nutrient dense. I find if you eat when hungry, prioritize nutrient dense foods when this occurs, and avoid overly focusing on calorie count is a good foundation. Recognize you are likely dehydrated and it may take 24-48 hours to correct fluid balance. You will not correct this by chugging water with reckless abandon, as the body does have fluid processing limits. Just like in the race, it is better to sip frequently on your fluids rather than chug them, this principle can be continued in the days following your event. Have water readily available, and sip on it throughout the days following your event. Sleep is massive. I get reminded of this every time. It is going to be difficult in many cases to sleep well the first night after an event, so do our best but don’t stress about it. By the second night, you will likely be in a much better spot to sleep like a baby. Carve out as much time as you can for the second night. I find I make the biggest stride after my first really solid night of sleep following an event. By the end of the week, you may be curious to do a test run. I don’t find this to be off limits, but what I do advise against is forcing anything. If you get the urge to head out for an exploratory run, do so with ample skepticism that things are not ready, and the slower, easier, shorter you go the better. Give yourself an out, and don’t be afraid to bale immediately if anything feels off. Keep in mind, walking and hiking at very low impact and intensity can be a great way to move things along and gauge how ready you actually are physically and mentally to add structure back into your exercise routine.
By the second week, most people will have had at least a few days where they feel relatively normal doing low intensity daily tasks. I still advise against doing anything structured in most cases, or at least forcing anything structured during this second week. You have likely caught up on sleep, rebalanced your fluids, and caught up on the calorie deficit you produced from the event, so it makes sense that you may begin to feel a bit antsy. If you find yourself here, but feel a bit mentally fatigued with the idea of running, it is best to do some light movement with other activities. I like to think of some activities I enjoy, but typically give up or minimize when dedicating so much time to structured training (life hack: a thorough deep cleaning of the house is a great low intensity and low impact way to move your body and accomplish something along the way. If you have family members, it has the third benefit of thanking and impressing them, so when you get the itch to sign up for a future event, all hands will be on deck).
By week three, if things are all heading in the right direction both physically and mentally, adding some structure is likely fine. The key to make this approach sustainable is to avoid jumping right back into what you were doing during the bulk of your previous training cycle. Give yourself a couple weeks to build back up to anything closely resembling the training load you normalized over your previous training cycle(s). Use these next couple weeks to really think about how motivated you would be if you were to return to a normal training load, and what type of event you would be most motivated to do. When considering an event, don’t forget to also consider the preparation requirements for it, as that is where you will be spending the most time.
Whether the timeline above proves to be shorter or longer, the steps within it are worth considering when you are in between goal events. I believe the stages of recovery and readiness tend to be pretty consistent, and the variable in question is the duration of time each stage will require. It is good practice to document this process after goal events, so you have some data to help you in the future as well as refine as you discover things that proved to be more or less beneficial with the advantage of hindsight.
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