Marathon Recovery

Ok, its been a few weeks now since London and I feel that I am recovered byt my speed has dropped way down on shorter runs.  My legs feel strong but my lungs just wont keep up with them. Hills are a real issue and I am struggling.

How long do you think it takes to fully recover from a marathon and its training?  I took a complete week off after and then the 2nd week I did some weight training and 2 runs.

I havent got the answer but i just thought it was wierd I've got the opposite! no trouble with breathing in fact its improved but my legs are suffering!
I guess we are all different with our recoveries?

That is weird. lol

I get accused of that a lot

Different people recover in different ways. The first 2 marathons I ran I found the recovery quick and simple and I was back to running in no time. London I really struggled with. Like Max's Mum it was the legs.

I think that perhaps running on almost flat roads is what kills the legs. I trained on undulating roads as that's what there is around here so there's different pace and other muscles being used. I ran London at a consistant pace throughout.

I think it's a combination of impact and lack of variety in pace / terrain that kills your legs, esp if like me you are not used to this.

The lungs I don't know.

My only way around this was to run at different paces over different terrain. That may work for the lungs as well. I found that I found speed work easier than long steady runs. Getting back from illness and that's what I'm finding again.

I guess maybe it's being totally run down on energy. Maybe throw a couple of protein snacks into your diet. Quinoa is a very good food to eat.

I've still not run since London....taking a whole month off from running. Just swimming.  But I got a sore hip from london, and want that to completely and utterly heal before I start running again.

Maybe you started back too soon?  I heard rule of thumb was miss a day for every mile ran - i.e.26 days?

Thanks

kaffeeg wrote (see)

Maybe you started back too soon?  I heard rule of thumb was miss a day for every mile ran - i.e.26 days?

If this has any relevance at all, it's more to do with how long it takes to make a complete recovery from a race, not the timescale for not doing any running whatsoever.  Even then, different people react differently.  There were some pretty damn swift runners in the half marathon I did last week, who had also run rather well at London two weeks earlier.  Chances are they could've run even quicker if they hadn't run London but I don't suppose any of them considered sitting on the sofa for another week before even putting their running shoes back on. 

It's been a while since I ran one but I do have memories of feeling a bit sluggish, heavy-legged and "one-paced" a good couple of weeks after a marathon even when I thought the legs were fully recovered.  I think it's probably best to just crack on with normal training and hopefully the faster paces will improve over the coming few weeks.  The marathon training will definitely benefit in the long run.  (Pun intended.)

Yeah, I'd go with recover for a day for each mile raced, but recovery doesn't mean doing nothing at all.  Recovery can mean cross-training or easy running, just not getting back into a set of 400s with the first team.  Also recovery gets easier as you toughen up over time, so experienced runners don't need so much because they haven't got so broken up in the muscles and fascia.

I PB'ed a parkrun after two weeks off, but I bet I would have done better if I had waited.  And also if I hadn't done it off the back of marathon training!    But 26 days hasn't passed yet and I'd be bouncing off walls if I hadn't been out for a couple of sessions.

If you do some light training like above it helps with the recovery as gets the blood going. Everyones different but normally takes me a week before I'm bouncing about again and about a month to recover properly.

I took 3 days off after London but did some swimming, then back to normal training but it normally takes about 4 weeks for my legs to catch up and not be fatigued!