Recovering from a race: 3 Essentials (5km, 10km, 10miles, Half Marathon, Marathon)

Yesterday I completed the 2011 Bupa Great South run, along with a friend Rob, my girlfriend Gemma and 23,997 other runners.

The course is a flat, supposedly fast, 10 mile road race. I personally didn't put in a quick time but I'm aware the conditions were great for the elite runners on the day.

At about 15.7 stone I have to say I'm not one of the greatest runners out there, needless to say I'm suffering a fair bit for it today.

My knees have taken a bit of a pounding and my quads are feeling a little sore. Gemma, I know, is feeling stiff in her hips today. For those of you who have completed a race and pushed yourself harder than normal you will be familiar with these type of aches and pains.

With this in mind I though it would be useful for me to put down a few of my thoughts on recovering down wind of a race. I'll include a few of the things I've personally done following this race.

1) Ice 'hot' joints and tissue.

During a race you will cause, varying degrees of, damage to your joints and tissue. For example, the muscles will under go many small micro tears. This is normal, however it will cause inflammation within the muscles. This inflammation must be dealt with. The quicker you can reduce this inflammation the better.

Once you've finished the race and had a shower use your hand, ideally the back of your hand (it's more sensitive) to feel the heat around your muscles and joints. If your muscles, normally at the attachments, or joints are hot you must ice them.

Use an ice pack and try icing for 10 minutes at a time. This can be repeated as many times as required, just let your tissue come back to normal temperature between each application.

I didn't do this right away and left it to the next day (today) to do it. This isn't ideal but I didn't have an ice pack at home and had to wait until getting to the clinic to do this. Tut, tut.

2) Stretch and Mobilise

I know you'll be feeling pretty tired after a race but you must spend some time doing some stretching and mobilising after a race. As explained in the icing part of this post, your muscles will under go lots of micro tears. Early stretching and mobilising will help your muscle recover more effectively. These micro tears can cause your muscles to heal in a slightly shortened position. Stretching will help to avoid this.

For me I spent about 20 minutes on the ground last night (after finishing the race), mobilising my lower back and stretching my hips, hamstrings and quadriceps. If I'm being honest more time doing this would have been better. I'll get some more done this evening!

3) Hydrate

This one is very simple but makes a huge difference to your recovery. Make sure you get plenty of water back through your system down wind of the race. As already stated one of the major issues following a race will be your inflamed muscles and joints. Being well hydrated will allow your body to efficiently deal with the inflammation.

The earlier you can start to replace these lost fluids the better.