August 21, 2019
The weeks following your A Race can be a tricky time.
First, you are tired and need some well deserved recovery time.
And second, you may find yourself inspired and super motivated to get back to work for next season.
But how much is enough? How much is too much? Here is a guide to help you through the first few weeks.
Week 1–Rest. Recover. Sleep. Refuel. Spend time with friends and family that have been missing you the last few months. If you had to travel, use your extra energy to do unpack, do laundry, and catch up on miscellaneous things you put of during race week. If you feel good, you may want to go for an easy swim at the end of the week. No structure needed. Just swim.
Week 2–This is when I get into trouble. I start to get itchy to dive back in and am feeling lost without my normal workouts anchoring my week. Fortunately, this year we were on vacation during week 2! Resist the urge to start back to soon. Swim easy once or twice. Try an easy short bike ride. Go for a walk. Stretch. Do some meal prep. If you go out for something easy and notice your heart rate is more elevated than usual, BACK OFF! This is your body telling you that is isn’t ready yet!
Week 3–If swimming and biking feel ok, start to put in a couple of runs. Easy, short, slow. Enjoy seeing familiar faces out on your route. Stop to chat with your neighbors (it’s always amazing to me how may of my neighbors don’t know what I do!) Start to consider taking off your Ironman bracelet (who, me?).
Ease through these first few weeks. I PROMISE your hard earned fitness isn’t going to go away (even though it may feel that way at times!). When you start back with your normal days designated for swim-bike-run, keep it unstructured for a little while. After a year of “it’s Thursday so I need to be at the pool at 5:30AM for my intervals, and I need to pack my running stuff so I can go directly to the neighborhood where I do my hill repeats before getting home to make dinner and help the kids with homework…..” you DESERVE time to do what you love without the pressure of a looming race! If you take time to recover, you will be ready heart, mind, body, and soul when it comes time to start training for your next race…which, let’s be honest…you have probably already registered for!
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