How to recover from an Ultramarathon

50 miler today, after two 25 miles runs and a double-marathing in a 2 week time period

#1 SLEEP & #2 DRINK WATER

Now you can move on and focus on your training instead of reading countless articles about how to recover.

A couple weeks ago, I ran a double marathon, and for grins I google'd "How do you recover from an ultra marathon?"  I was amazed, and a little shocked, at what I found. There were a lot of articles from people purporting to be "experts." One guy had actually finished one 100 mile race in his running career....that's it. I thought that was pretty gutsy to be dispensing advice to the masses without significant experience. Also, recovery from your first "hundo" is much different than recovering from your 5th, 10th or 20th hundred mile race. There were also "non-running" physical therapists dispensing advice that they learned from books. All in all, there were a lot of "tips" and people seemed to throw in everything and the kitchen sink. None of the articles boiled it down to the "brass tacks" and got to the "guts" of how to recover......so I thought I would share my experience and perspective. (take it or leave it....everybody is different, but if you read-on you might just learn something that could significantly help your training and performance).

So who am I, and what gives me street-cred to even say a word about this topic. I've ran across America, averaging 51.5 miles per day with no days off. I've ran Badwater (135 miles across a desert) and Spartathlon (153 miles across Greece). Oh year, I ran a Hardrock qualifier (Run Rabbit Run 100) 3 weeks before Spartathlon. I've been a Paralympian - 4th @ the 2015 World Marathon Championships. I have 20 runs of 100 miles or longer under my belt, and countless marathons, 50k's, 50 milers, 100k's and multi-day racing. Today, I ran a 50 mile training run...4 days ago I ran a 25 mile training run....2 days before that, I ran a 25 mile training run.....6 days before that I ran a double marathon training run. Some will criticize my training methods, but that is not the point of this article. The point of this article is to answer a question.....that is important to all runners, athletes and humans - "What are the most effective ways to recover?"

In my experience in running there are 2 things that impact 80% of your recovery after an ultra marathon - Sleep and staying fully hydrated. All the other things you have heard about can help, but their effects are nominal, and combined add up to about a 20% recovery effect (no science here for you people who need a research article to believe something). Strategies that comprise this 20% include, but are not limited to: active recovery (walking in the days following an ultra), yoga, supplements, leg compression boots, massage, e-stim therapy, healthy eating, cryo-therapy, foam rollers, stretching, and so on.

The 2 things that are going to allow your body to recover the best and quickest are Sleep and being well hydrated. Let me briefly discuss each in turn.

SLEEP

For people who need to read a research article to believe something, just google "research articles that discuss how sleep affects athletic performance." Click HERE for a link to such an article. What I can tell you is that elite athletes fiercely protect their "sleep time" leading up to a major race. During my taper period before a major race, I force myself to sleep one extra hour per day. When training for the marathon World Championships, I was doing two strategic workouts per day - one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I usually tried to sneak in a nap between the two. When I was able to nap, my afternoon workout was always better and resulted in a better training impact. 

After an ultra marathon, your muscle fibers have thousands of tiny tears. There is "micro-bleeding" and tissue trauma where these tears are located. Don't be disturbed - this is how the body becomes stronger - you stress the body physically, the body breaks down, but then rebuilds itself to become stronger. The muscles repair when they are not being used; hence, when you sleep. The body uses the sleep cycle to do some really amazing things to the body. The more time you sleep, the more time your body has to heal the tiny tears, and build those muscle groups into stronger muscles. The result is that the muscles you used for your activity broke down, your body repairs them and those same muscles become stronger.....and you become a better runner.

The problem arises, when you don't give your body enough time to repair the damage you have done. In people's "busy lives", they do not care for their body enough. High anxiety levels can have a negative impact on an athlete's ability to sleep. Keep your life simple. Protect your "sleep time." This is your real "ME TIME." Without adequate sleep, your body won't have the time it needs to recover. Then, you'll go out and hurt yourself because you're running without your micro tears being healed.  Make sense?  In response to the question - "how much sleep do I need to recover?" ANSWER: As much as possible. Go to sleep one hour earlier and don't set an alarm. If you need to nap and feel tired - find a way to take a nap. Your body will tell you when it has had enough sleep, and you will return to your normal sleeping patterns when you're healed. Listen to your body.

HYDRATION

If you know me, you know I say "drink water" in response to just about everything - including relationship breakups, hangnails, broken arms, poor performance on a school test, depressed feelings, anxiety, and so on. It's actually not a joke, although many people think I'm joking. The fact is "75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated" (Nutrition Information Center, New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center). Again, if you don't believe me, just google it. Among other things, dehydration can have negative effects on mood, cognitive function and athletic performance.

Dehydration is a "junior mistake" by any athlete. If you're around elite athletes you're going to notice that they're always drinking water. When the body is hydrated, cells are fuller with fluid and perform better, blood volume is at it's optimal level and the body is able to ship "healing agents" to cells that have been damaged during an ultra marathon, and efficiently remove waste (by-products of exercise) out of the body. The less hydrated the body, the less blood volume there is and the body is more inefficient with taking "healing agents" to the injured muscles and removing waste by-product from heavy exercise for processing and excretion.

Think of your blood supply this way - if your fully hydrated, your blood flow is like a fast moving river. If you are dehydrated, your blood flow can be like a muddy river. If you sleep for 8 hours and have a fast moving river delivering healing agents to your injured muscles, much more work is going to get done as compared to 8 hours of a muddy river. I hope this makes sense.

I have no research article to prove that SLEEP & staying FULLY HYDRATED account for 80% of total recovery - - - it is just my experience from thousands of miles of running, IronMan triathlons, competing for Team USA, setting records, and still getting out there for a 50 mile training run today at the sprite age of 49 years young.

Take it or leave it. But hopefully you'll consider these critical elements in your athletic recovery & performance. Oh yeah - they help with everything else - work performance, relationship performance, cognitive performance and the list goes on......

HAPPY TRAILS!

-Jason

P.S. The better trained you are, the quicker you will recover. The harder you race, the more damage you do and the longer it takes to recover.

Jason is an expert at teaching people to transform Dreams into Reality. He has amassed a lifetime of expertise in the field as a General Manager for General Electric leading large teams, where he ran a $400 million dollar business, he was a former leader of Global Operations for a Fortune 100 company, an attorney and CEO of a non-profit that helps children with Autism. In addition to his professional experience, he is a US Paralympian, holds 15 world records in ultra-running and mountain biking, is an author, a highly sought after motivational and business speaker and is the 1st and only blind person to run across America - 3,063 miles where he averaged 51.5 miles/day for 59.5 days. For speaking and media inquiries visit www.jasonromero.net