A Full Recovery
Day 28
October 14, 2006
United Technologies Hartford Marathon
Hartford, Connecticut
Elevation: 161'
Weather: 59 degrees; clear
Time: 3:29:28
Net calories burned: 89,236
Number of runners: 7,600
The Hartford Marathon, which I ran on Day 28 in Hartford, Connecticut, was a live event. As in the other live marathons of the Endurance 50, I ran this one at my natural pace, since I didn’t have a group to pace with. I crossed the finish line in a little less than three and a half hours, or roughly thirty minutes faster than the typical re-created marathon run with a group.
When I woke up the following morning, my legs felt better than they had in several days. This came as no surprise. Over the preceding four weeks I had noticed an interesting pattern: My faster live marathons took less out of me than my slower group events. Maybe it was because I spent less time on my feet when I ran faster. Or maybe it was because I ran more efficiently at my natural pace. Whatever the cause, the effect was noticeable.
The ability to recover quickly from hard running is probably my greatest strength as a runner. I’m certainly not the fastest guy around, but like the Timex GPS system I wore throughout the Endurance 50, I can take a licking and keep on ticking.
I discovered that I was unusual in this regard after running the Western States 100 one year. The finish area looked like a battlefield triage center, with some runners laid out on gurneys, others receiving IVs, and none looking particularly well. But I felt fine. I had run as hard as I could and felt that I’d left everything I had out on the course, but after chitchatting near the finish line for a few minutes, I was almost ready for more. Instead, I drove home to go windsurfing.
Throughout the Endurance 50, my body held up surprisingly well against the brutal running schedule. I felt sore, beat-up, and wiped out some days, and I caught a few colds, but that was the worst of it. The objective data that Koop gathered from my blood and urine samples confirmed my feelings. Failure to recover properly can result in chronic dehydration, accumulating muscle damage, systemic inflammation, depressed immune function, and changes in hormone levels. If I were getting in over my head with the Endurance 50, one or more of these signs would have manifested sooner or later, and they didn’t. My body fluid samples were analyzed for markers of each of these signs of incomplete recovery, and almost all of them stayed within the normal range throughout the Endurance 50.
QUICK TAKE: A convenient way to monitor your recovery status is to take your pulse first thing each morning. A pulse rate that is above normal suggests that your body is still working to recover from a recent workout and may require additional rest.
I suppose the final conclusion of Koop’s study of my body’s response to the Endurance 50, which he performed on behalf of Carmichael Training Systems, had to be this: The human body is a remarkably adaptive instrument. With proper training and nourishment, there’s no telling what we are capable of achieving.
Recovery is one of the most important aspects of running, and one that runners often struggle with. Even those running far less than a marathon a day generally have to make special efforts to ensure that they recover adequately between runs. In the short term (from day to day), inadequate recovery causes muscle soreness, fatigue, and poor performance. When a runner consistently trains too much and/or rests too little for a week or more, the ultimate result can be an injury or illness.
The best way to avoid overtraining is to train smart. The hard–easy rule, for instance, involves alternating more challenging runs with gentler runs from day to day. It’s also a good idea to vary how hard you train from week to week. Once every two to four weeks, you should reduce your running mileage by 20 to 30 percent to facilitate recovery and prepare your body for another batch of harder workouts. Like the hard–easy rule, planned recovery weeks allow you to train harder when you mean to train hard, yet also recover from your hard training more fully than when your training load is less varied.
You may need to experiment to find the frequency of planned recovery weeks that works best for you. A good place to start is with a three-week cycle with a 20 to 30 percent reduced training load in the recovery week, as in this example:
Week 1. 25 miles (three hard runs)
Week 2. 28 miles (three hard runs)
Week 3. 20 miles (two hard runs)
One helpful way to monitor your recovery is to grade your workouts. By grading your workouts, you can measure how much you’re getting out of them and adjust your training appropriately when it’s not enough.
After completing each run, give it a grade in your training log: for example, great, good, fair, or bad. Three consecutive bad days indicate that you aren’t getting enough recovery to perform adequately in workouts and should rest or take it easy for a day or two. A full week without any good or great workouts indicates the same.
There are a few other measures you can practice to promote post-workout recovery. After an especially hard workout or race, taking a brief cold bath may limit the tissue swelling that accompanies and often exacerbates muscle damage, enabling your leg muscles to heal faster. While scientific studies of ice baths and other cold therapies have not confirmed these benefits, many top-level runners swear they work, and I tend to agree.
The recovery method that has the most scientific support is eating properly. When you complete a hard run, you have many damaged muscle fibers in your legs, you are at least slightly dehydrated, and your muscles are low in glycogen fuel. Nutrition is required to correct all of these physiological imbalances. You need protein to repair and rebuild your muscles, liquid to rehydrate, and carbohydrate to replenish your muscle fuel supplies.
Eating for Recovery
Studies have shown that, to maximize your post-run recovery, you need to consume protein, carbohydrate, and fluid within an hour after each run. Here are some especially good post-workout snacks, meals, and supplements.
| RECOVERY NUTRITION OPTION | WHY |
| Smoothie with whey protein powder | Appealing after exercise; rapidly absorbed |
| form of recovery nutrition. | |
| Tuna wrap and whole apple or pear | Ideal ratio of carbohydrate to protein. |
| Low-fat milk | Studies have shown that milk is an |
| especially effective form of post-exercise | |
| nutrition for recovery. | |
| Energy bar with water | Convenient and well formulated for |
| post-exercise recovery. | |
| Recovery drink mix or sports drink | Patented 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein has |
| (such as Accelerade) | been shown to extend endurance, speed |
| muscle recovery, and enhance rehydration. | |
| It’s also convenient and easy to consume | |
| even when you’re not hungry. |
Nature’s Recovery Secrets
According to the US Department of Agriculture, the following twenty foods are excellent sources of antioxidants—nature’s recovery potion: small red beans (also called Mexican red beans), blueberries, red kidney beans, pinto beans, kiwi fruit, cranberries, artichokes, blackberries, prunes, raspberries, strawberries, Red Delicious apples, Granny Smith apples, pecans, sweet cherries, black plums, broccoli, black beans, plums, Gala apples.
Research has shown that athletes who consume these nutrients within the first hour after a workout recover faster and perform better in their next workout than athletes who wait more than an hour to eat. It doesn’t have to be a big meal. A modest-size snack or a recovery supplement with carbs and protein, plus water, will do.
Maintaining a diet that’s rich in antioxidants and omega-3 fats will also help your muscles recover faster after runs. Large amounts of free radicals are released from damaged muscle cells through the inflammation process after runs. These free radicals cause additional tissue damage, which may explain why you may feel sorer one or two days after a hard run than you do immediately afterward. Fruits and vegetables are full of antioxidants your body can use to neutralize free radicals and help limit post-run muscle damage. Omega-3 fats aid in the production of anti-inflammatory compounds that boost the muscle repair process between runs. Good sources of omega-3 fats are salmon, flaxseeds, and fish oil supplements.
One final measure that is very important for recovery is sleep. The majority of muscle tissue repair happens during sleep. Since I normally sleep just four to five hours a night, I rely on fresh, healthy foods to take up some of the slack. During the Endurance 50, I sometimes only got two or three hours of shut-eye. Rest was a luxury that would have to wait until after I finished—if I finished. Until then, my motto was “Bring on the broccoli, wild salmon, and raspberries!”
The Dean’s List
Some nondrug alternatives for treating muscle strain and soreness include:
• Arnica Montana
• MSM (methylsulfonylmethane)
• C3 Complex (turmeric root)
• BioAstin