How to Recover from your Marathon

You did it! You finished your marathon. Now what do you do afterwards?

Immediately after you finish

Try to eat something and drink some fluids. Whatever you can take in at this point is great.

The rest of the day after you race

Relax and have some fun. Try to replenish everything you left out on the course; water, electrolytes, carbs, and protein. At the very least eat one high protein meal a few hours after you finish.

Try to walk a little bit to keep the blood moving in your legs. If not, it’s ok to sit around; you just ran a marathon!

The week after your race

Take the week off from running. You need a break both physically and mentally. Marathon training can be draining. Take time to do some things that you didn’t get to during your training. Maybe sleep late or go out to breakfast with friends and family.

Integrate light recovery activities like walking, swimming, easy cycling, or yoga. This active recovery should be easy and allow your muscles to stay loose while they rebuild.

Eat! While you may not require quite as many calories as peak weeks, your body does need energy to repair and recover. Eat when you are hungry, focusing particularly on protein, but do not intentionally cut calories or restrict.

Two weeks after your race

If you feel up to it, you can start back to running. These should only be short, easy runs which will likely feel ridiculously difficult and you will question how in the world you ever just ran 26 miles.

If you are not ready to get back into running, that’s ok too. It takes weeks for the body to fully recover from racing a marathon so listen to how you feel.

It’s still important to maintain a healthy, balanced diet. Because you are not running as much, you may find that you are not as hungry as during training. This is completely normal and you can adjust your eating habits to reflect your activity and hunger levels.

Three weeks after your race

If you are intending to get back into a regular running routine, slowly ramp up mileage and intensity. Don’t jump right back in to where you were, but once you start to feel more recovered, you can up your mileage more than you would starting from scratch. Remember you were well trained enough a few weeks ago to run a full marathon. You haven’t lost that much fitness in that timeframe. Aim for no more than 50-75% of the volume you averaged during your training cycle for this week.

One month after your race

Return to your regular training and fueling regime.

Remember these are just guidelines. You can absolutely take longer to recover and you should do so if you are still feeling depleted.

A marathon is a massive undertaking that requires a high level of physiological strain and changes. Ensuring that you are recovering from that effort should be your priority. This will also offer you the best chance for long-term sustained success.

One note: this is only relevant if you do not have another race scheduled within the next month or two. If you are targeting another race, particularly a half or full marathon, your post marathon plan will look substantially different.