What happens AFTER an ultra marathon - How to Maximize Recovery after a race

I think the post-race blues is something we often don't talk about but is important to know. Watch out for that!

Hello Simon, I just started my running/OCR journey, this year. Although, I am not up to your level, I have a question. I have been doing fine with the cramps, eating bananas, mustard etc., my question is, how do you handle achilles cramps/strains after running?

I just run a Spartan Ultra, 2 weeks ago. Not the same level at all, I get soooo hungry the next following days, I am non-stop eating after for days, and can gain up to 6lbs

As always such great advice! Man your run times are my sprint times 😂😂! Good to know all this stuff. Planning my first ultra for next year but since we farm ill make sure my husband wont be at work just in case i cant hobble around as well as a penguin 😂 my critters dont need to suffer for my poor decisions 😂

This was really, really good. I understand how you feel about the video being a little long, but I do feel the content was necessary, and highly valuable! Your explanation of what starts to happen at day 4 was so accurate it was unbelievable. Feeling "okay" but maybe not quite being "really okay" yet was sooo true for me. This was the same stage when I wanted to start running harder, but stayed patient, and it really paid off - day 4/5 was when I recently tried to speed up a bit too fast and realized my primary road shoes had way too many miles on them and I was experiencing "new" knee pain. The rest of the video was spot on about taking time to really digest everything before making the next decision, although getting something new on the calendar is definitely so important. Great work, as always and the video was just right! I hope anyone newer to this sport (like me) will really pay attention to these lessons!

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks!

You probably recovered faster because filming the process made you more cognizant of what your body is feeling and what it needs. Great video!

Thank you for sharing this. I have not yet (and am not sure if I ever will) ran an ultra, but knowing what happens after is a plus. Loved the penguin comparison :D

This is a brilliant advert for not doing ultras. Will it stop anyone? Of course not. Keep up the awesome videos. 👍

Great video and very informative ! Thank you very much! I am personally still afraid of thinking what is going to happen during the first hours after my next race. In the best case, it will take 48 hours and more realistically something like 52..54 hours, not far from the official race cut off time of 58 hours. Could you please recommend the 3 most important things to do and what not to do during the first 6 hours after such a long race?

I find that moving after the race esp the next day when your body is shouting NO really helps even as u said like a penguin😂

Watching this after getting in from a hot 21 mile training run for my first ultra in a month 🙌
The immediate feelings were pretty accurate
Cool shower, protein shake & nap were my priorities

Appreciate the point about the mental space you might be in. Great video! Penguin walk too funny 🤣

Just finished a 100km yesterday, this is perfect timing!

Thankyou for sharing all your insights. This is an excellent video

As always, your video was very helpful. The mental aspect of the post-race recovery is especially tricky, so it was great to hear your tips and acknowledgement.

Great video, thanks for posting 👍
At end of July I have a 200 miler, then a month later a 400 miler... that should be fun! 😱🤪

Great video ❤
Anyone else struggling with the appetite after races? I just finished my first 100k 3 weeks ago, and my appetite was gone for the first 4-5 day's afterwards. And I'm usually a foodie who can eat all the time 🤔

Thank you so much for this video Simon! Really helpfull! Although recovery is individual and always different from ultra to ultra, you made a good resumé of the phases which is good to know about.
Just ran my first 65km ultra yesterday in an FKT yesterday. So your video just came to the right time! Nice🎉!

This was so helpful, so many valuable tips! I ran my first ultra back in May, and I was dealing with some injury in the mid phase, the pain was still present until a few weeks ago, and now I'm very slowly rebuilding my training, and being careful if the pain starts to resurface again. Thanks so much for this video again!

Thank you for sharing, Simon; great video!

You did an excellent job with this, Simon. I've lived through all these phases and it was great to see even the guy who does it all the time experiences the same. It's a process, for sure!

"In the acute phase, you'll feel like you're dying, but you're PROOBBBBABLY not.... " Thanks for the boost of confidence! 😂😂 Loved this, very helpful. As a farmer, I've got no choice but to be up moving around, feeding and shoveling, the day after- and sometimes the day of- ultras. It sucks at the time, but I really think it helps!

Yes, the post race blues... I think it is definitely important to talk this stuff,.. The high... The blank Ness... The low... Yes, part of the process, even after a fairly short distance.. I completed a big city road marathon (why oh why.. Never again.. Just not me) after that my body was fine as not huge distance but I was so low after.. Angry that I had wasted my efforts on something not suited to me so I suspect sometimes it's good to always choose races wisely 🎉

We recover very similarly! Great advice keeping in mind that we all recover differently!

Great video. Waddle phase 🎉. For me the brain is much slower during days 2,3. It’s hard to work. Bonne course au QMT. J’ai hâte de voir ton video.

The spasms are scary. I never had them and then ran my first marathon in May. I am 45 and it was humbling. My legs spasamed a lot but I got scared because my rib and lower ab area were really spasaming. Freaked me out. Anyways, I'll do it again! One day an ultra!

One thing that I've learned is that with proper long term training, I'm able to recover MUCH faster. For example, a 20 mile run use to take a lot out of me, and now it's just a normal Saturday run. Same goes for ultra distances... As you alluded to, our training prepares us for the race however some of those adaptations also allow you to recover better (all other things being equal such as no new injury).

Did you eat 3 In-n-out burgers!!!?

very interesting thank you very much about talking about this topik!
i never heard about that and i always thought something must be wrong with my body getting mild symptomes linke this after a great physical exertion... nobody talks about this normally.

Wicked tips much appreciated!
Do you have any videos or pictures of how swollen your archiles get… I have a similar situation, do you think the back of the shoe is aggravating it by it rubbing hitting it? Have you tried anything ( compression , insert’s)that helps reduce the pain during your races
Keep the vids coming !

Going downstairs backwards is much easier than sideways. Try it!

First 100 miler is quickly
Approaching. So fast that I began thinking about “what should I prep/organize for my
Recovery period.” Super super helpful video! Thank you so much

its so funny when you keep the audio from penguis but change the video to you recuperation.. haha.. all the video is super cool.. this motivates me to running, in a very sick way i think haha..
chers bro!

There is a good video cause I’ve been helping a friend train who wants to do his first hundred this year his longest run so far was 50 but the one he picked was one with 20,000 feet again which probably ain’t a problem because it’s gonna force him to walk a little bit more and you do get 34 hours. I was trying to convince some maybe doing the hundred K first but he doesn’t want to so I just texted him. I said now you also need to get an a hotel night for the night before the race and one after the race And he didn’t like that idea he said no I’m gonna drive home so I’ll keep you posted. what happens I think he thinks he’s gonna be Postres suffering but equal to his 50 and you know I found out it’s different but he could do good you never know unless you’ll listen to me and let’s do it 100 K for the next year to 100 mile, but we’ll see

Hey Simon, thanks for putting this together I really appreciate this. I just did my first 12-hour (stadium run) and able to do 82.4km. This is the longest distance/time I have traveled so far. I was wondering why I still have pain while walking in one leg(3rd day). This video really helped me realize it's normal to be that way.

I have a question - You said Sauna and Massage. Massage do you go with light pressure or deep tissue? I went for a light massage 2 days after the run and I felt inflamed but my physio said its okay to get deep tissue, so I am kind of confused. Please suggest your thoughts here.

It was a difficult one to put together. Honestly, not happy how it came out - I wanted it shorter. But after 4 re-shoots, here we are! You can see the new belt buckles pilling up in the back to see how much time I've spent working on this one!!!
I think next tip video should be poles (but not sure)