Fast Running Blog

So..... being a newbie to running I am interested in recovery techniques.  Any ideas on how to speed up recovery after a marathon?

There is no magic I know of. Just make sure to eat a healthy diet with a focus on carbs, sleep enough, and back off in your training based on how you are feeling. If you are too sore to run, cross-train, otherwise just jog at an easy pace. You will find as you continue to train consistently and eat a healthy diet, overtime your body will become sufficiently strong to where it would be able to take a hard marathon in stride.

Sasha has a good point in that the best recovery technique is simply being extraordinarily fit. The bigger the base you have, the faster you will recover from marathons.

But once the damage is already done, massage therapy is very effective in increasing healing. Non-impact activities such as swimming, aqua-jogging, and elliptical can also get the blood moving and help work out the race. Also, hydrate a lot. I would lay off running until soreness is gone. Personally, I'm absolutely shredded from St. George, and do not plan to run again until Friday, and just am focusing on restoring the health of my muscles. In the meantime, I will do elliptical.

Ice baths are going to help reduce the muscle swelling.  But like others mentioned proper diet and rest is a great method.

Ice baths are actually good for another reason.

When you get in an ice bath, blood rushes from your legs to the core of your body in an attempt to keep the core of you functioning. IN other words, your body says, "screw your legs, we've got a heart and a brain and lungs to save."

After about 10-15 minutes, you hop out of the ice bath and the body basically says "crap, we may be able to save those legs afterall" and rushes blood in the tiny capillaries in your damaged legs that so desperately need blood flow. It's all about stimulating blood flow so that repair can be accelerated.

Even if you can't get a real ice bath, just a dip in cold water (i.e. canal, river, hose) does wonders for reducing soreness.  I did it after TOU this year and was much, much less sore than after any other marathon.  Ice is better, but cold water works.