So, you have trained really hard for several weeks and on Sunday you, hopefully, finished the Ealing Half Marathon. First of all, Well Done!
I personally was a little disappointed with my time, but I gave it my all as you can see from this photo so i can’t complain too much! At least my little girl is coming out in sympathy with me!
Before we delve into the main topic of this Blog, I would love to hear how you got on at the half marathon so please do use the comments section at the bottom of the page for your tales from the day!
So, what do you do now?
If you are anything like me, my first thought was “Thank goodness that’s over and I cant wait to start the week knowing that I don’t have to train! But, it may sound crazy after you have just run 13.1 miles, this coming week you should do a little bit more exercise!
You should probably have a rest day on Monday but if you can get out for a short, easy recovery run on Monday evening that would be ideal, or visit the gym for a very easy/light session. The reason for this is that you need to push fresh, red blood cells around the legs in order to help ease the aches and pains out of the legs and flush out the lactic acid. Something like a swim or a static bike ride in the gym would be perfect for this purpose.
Stretching is really important as well; if you have a Personal Trainer, get a session booked in early this week and get them to stretch you big time! Same reason as for the gentle cardio session mentioned above. You will see here that once I had recovered on Sunday, myself and the team of Personal Trainers at Bodyline were stretching out some race participants.
You can, of course, stretch out your legs on your own and if you would like any help on what stretches to do and how long to hold them for etc please dont hesitate to contact me via the website or call me directly on 07921 777477 as you can , of course, do for any general questions on your health and fitness.
Massage is another good, relaxing way to ease out the discomfort and tightness in the muscles. A Deep Tissue Massage would be the prefered option so that the Therapist can focus on specific areas that may need attention and a Deep Tissue Therapist will have the necessary experience. If you would like to have a chat with one of our Massage Therapists or make an appointment, you can contact them here on our Therapist website page.
Lastly, rehydrate throughout the week. Hopefully you had plenty of water on Sunday, but keep increasing your water intake this week as well, in order to keep the muscles hydrated and functioning well. Again, this will help flush out the lactic acid build up in your legs.
As the week progresses you should have a couple of rest days mixed in with the gentle workout/stretch sessions highlighted in this post, so by the end of the week you should be feeling completely back to normal and ready for your next challenge! That challenge will be the subject of our next Blog later in the week!
Don’t forget to leave me your comments below on how the day went for you!
I finished with a chip time of 1h 42m 18s.
Pleased with that time! Although it’s slower than the 1h 40m I was “instructed” to get by my wife just before the start. It’s about the same time as I managed 12 miles in during training.
My GPS app crashed my smartphone after about 2 miles so I stopped getting voice updates on my pace from my MapMyRun. I would say that one thing I’d liked to have seen was clearer distance markers around the course. I never really had much of a clue how I was doing after my phone conked out, even though I’m local and had run a rough approximation of the first 3/4 of the course two or three times. I’m glad it lasted as long as it did though…when I got my first mile update at 7m 30s I knew I had to slow down a bit!
It was a fun experience, and good to see the local communities coming out to take part and support. Still not keen on doing another one. As I said in my comment on your other post, training for the race was hugely time consuming and quite gruelling. But the wife has already been saying things like “you’re obviously good at it, why not do another one?”.
Ran past a guy in Walpole Park who’d collapsed by the side of the route and was being attended to by a couple of people. Hope he’s OK. What a shame to get so close to the finish and then lose it. After my vomiting and near-fainting post-race experience at the Bupa 10k, I consciously pulled back a bit yesterday when I started to feel light-headed after about 10 miles. I could have pushed harder, but I didn’t want a repeat of that, so I kept to a steady jog even at the end of the race.
Amazed at the times of the lead finishers. Notable that they are all members of running and/or athletics clubs.
Afterwards me and a friend who also ran (yesterday was part of her training for the New York marathon in a few weeks) went back to our and foam rolled a bit before chilling out, which included drinking the can of London Pride we were slightly surprised to find in the finishers’ goody bag!
I’m feeling a bit sore today. My feet became more painful during the race than I was expecting after my training runs, but I guess that was down to my faster pace. A few blisters on the toes, nothing serious. Today my thighs are sore and stairs aren’t much fun, but I may just follow your advice and nip to the gym at lunchtime for a quick cross-trainer session and some stretching.
Cheers, and well done!
Thanks for that Max, i saw that guy in walpole park too, at that point I was having serious thoughts about stopping myself! I just went off too fast; got to 6miles in 42mins but then it all went badly from there on in!
I hope you made it to the gym at lunchtime!
I don’t think you have done with half marathons yet! Just reading between the lines!!
All the best, and keep in touch as more blogs to come.
Roy
It was my first half and I absolutely loved it! Actually found it easier than I expected and the time flew by. Managed to maintain a really consistent pace and finished in 2:10:09 which I was so pleased with. The support along the way really helped and it was great to see so many locals coming out of their houses to cheer, give out jelly babies, and even wave their GB flags one more time!
Thought the whole event was fabulously organised, the volunteers were amazing, the route was great (although the hills took a lot of people by surprise – was glad I was familiar with them!), and I would sign up for a 2013 repeat right now if I could.
Hi Jess,
Thank you so much for such a positive response! I completely agree with you on everything you said, for me the local support was really helpful. At one point I went past a house that had a stereo blasting out “Heroes” by David Bowie; took me back to the olympics!
I think I have run my last half marathon now, but we will definately be involved as a sponsor again next year!
All the best,
Roy
Hi,
Jess, we must have finished pretty close together, my chip time was 2:10:06 (2:14:11 real time) – I was in a blue T-shirt. Well done – I can hardly believe the overall winning time though!
I found yesterday very hard work, I’m usually OK with hills but I was in bits by the top of Greenford Road. My aim was to complete in 2:15 and still be able to walk. I hurt my knee (ITB) on the Wokingham Half (2:04.20) 18 months ago (that stopped me running for a long time) so I’m pretty happy with 2:10 and a knee that still works.
Kev
Hi Kev,
Thanks for your comments. I think Greenford Road did it for me as well!
Do let me know if you would like any advice on your knee injury, I would be happy to take a look at it for you. We offer a free 30 minute consultation so there would be no charge. Just click on the contact us header at the top of this page.
All the best,
Roy