The Day Of The Half Marathon
Recovering After Half Marathon Run
After I reached the finish line and received the medal, I went for a hot sweat drink. I filled my cup three times with this drink. I knew hydration was essential, and it felt good to keep drinking.
Just after the run, I felt really good – my body wasn’t sore, I was excited, happy, and proud that I made it. After around 2 hours, I went for lunch with other students who had participated in this run. The moment I sat down and relaxed, I felt a wave of tiredness empowering my body. I wasn’t hungry either. I ate, though, the whole lunch, knowing that probably my body needed some fuel right now.
My First Half Marathon
turned out to be easy and challenging at the same time. I didn’t have any problems with endurance. It felt like I could run and run. But… READ MORE
As soon as I found myself in the school, I showered and fell asleep for hours. I woke up to eat dinner and fell asleep again till morning. I rarely feel this overpowering tiredness, where nothing really matters, where you don’t care and understand what is going on around you, where your body falls into a pleasure of resting, “lethargy”. It is a cozy, very comfortable state.
The next day, I woke up very sore. I had trouble walking, and I definitely couldn’t run. Mainly because of my sore ankle. I skipped my kung fu training and focused on massaging my joints and stretching tight and painful muscles.
NEXT DAYS
Recovering After Half Marathon Run
MASSAGE FOR PAINFUL JOINTS
I applied self-massage to my ankles, knees, and lower back. The sorest were my ankles. I felt that I needed to improve blood circulation there and relax the surrounding tissues. The video below shows exactly how to apply this massage. It gave me a lot of relief and helped me walk better. Similarly, with knees, rubbing them hard not only made joints warm and rich in blood but also relieved the thigh muscles.
Solution For MUSCLE SORENESS AFTER LONG RUN
Walk And Stretch!
I was experiencing the most muscle soreness in the AREA OF MY HIPS, including GLUTES and LEG ADDUCTORS. This is why walking was difficult for me. My tired and sore glutes didn’t want to support the pelvis. Every step, the pelvis slightly fell to the side until the muscles warmed up and held the pelvis in the right spot. Also, people, who have very weak glutes, can develop this kind of walk.
TEST FOR A WEAK GLUTEUS MEDIUS
- Standing on one leg.
- Strong Gluteus Medius – without soreness 🙂 – contracts and keeps pelvis leveled.
- Weak Gluteus Medius (Trendelenburg Sign) – drop of pelvis, when lifting leg opposite to weak Gluteus Medius.
- Similarly, after the 21km run, holding one leg lifted and keeping the pelvis even was a huge challenge.
Stong Gluteus Medius
Weak Gluteus Medius
But, as I said, the most painful and weird were the first steps until the blood circulation was increased, the muscles got a new pack of oxygen, and the soreness decreased. This is why it is beneficial to
walk at least 10-15 minutes a few times a day
after that kind of long run. Even if you have trouble doing that, ideally, you would stay in bed and watch some movies. You need to stand up, overcome the soreness, and keep walking. Believe me – it helps a lot. As I repeat often, the best solution for muscle soreness is movement. Apart from walking, to recover the muscles, it is crucial to
spend at least half an hour for the next few days, stretching those sore muscles.
In the video above, you will find 5 stretching exercises that helped me the most!
Hydratation
Recovering After Half Marathon Run
Apart from self-massage, a bit of walking and stretching exercises, nothing will work effectively if you won’t drink enough healthy fluids. In conclusion, it took me one week to fully recover after my first half marathon run. It was a gradual process. So be patient and take care of your body!
