After Jeffing a Marathon

It takes different people different amounts of time to recover from a marathon. I read to fully recover from a marathon it can take up to six months. Obviously it will be dependent on your fitness on how you trained. Plus of course how you approached the marathon itself. Jeffing is thought to lessen the risk of injury during and after the marathon – and a quicker recovery time. This is how I felt after Jeffing my first Marathon.

My Initial Recovery After Jeffing a Marathon

When I finished the marathon itself I wasn’t quite with it. Tony had leant me a coat and I completely forgot I was wearing it. When I got home I had a cold bath. I felt really tired but just couldn’t sleep – must of just been on a high. I went on a 2 mile walk with my husband to keep my legs moving to stop them from hurting.

The Day after the Marathon

The next day (Monday) I woke up hungry and my thighs hurt. However, I had no black toes and didn’t find going up or down the stairs a problem at all – which was how I was after my first half marathon.

I felt hungry but felt too mentally exhausted to cook. I had a bag of crisps, a marathon chocolate bar (which my husband had bought me, along with the champagne and flowers), some cashews and a banana. I managed to do a 2mile recovery jeff with a 30:30 ratio. At first I took it gingerly and steady myself into it. Was only meant to do a mile but it felt so good and my thighs actually stopped hurting when I ran. I actually felt really strong and that I could go on but decided that it was best not to.

The other thing we had to deal with is sorting our shoes after going through the flood water. One runner put hers straight in the oven. We soaked ours in a bucket of Zoflora.

The Rest of the Week after the Marathon

Then the following night (Tuesday) I woke up at 2am and went downstairs to eat!

Three days after the marathon (Wednesday) I went to a Jolly Jeffers session with the intermediate group and managed just over 4 miles. My husband was worried about me because the tops of my legs hurt. At one point I even decided that it wasn’t wise to run up an incline and so walked.

5 days after the marathon (Friday) I went for a swim in the river. Just for 5 minutes.

6 days after the marathon (Saturday) we went out for family ice-cream and to arrange our Secret Santa. It was also world mental health day. I was finding even waking up to be tiring. It was like a real mental exhaustion more than anything else.

A Week after the Marathon

A week after the marathon was of course a Sunday and was at a time when I could still meet with the Sunday runners. I didn’t really feel up for it at all but knew there would be no need to feel that I had to do a certain distance or speed. Worse-case scenario my husband would pick me up. I also knew if I didn’t get some more miles in that I would end up cramming in even more at the end of the month.

I opted not to do the longest run (Mia plans her route so that we can dip in and out at different places to get in the mileage that we want/suits us. I joined in with the plan to do 8 miles (which is what I did). Tony and Mia had already been out and completed miles before they meet up with us and carried on after they left us.

For the part of the run I went on Tony added a weighted vest to his attire – weighing around 2 stone. I really surprised myself on that run and apparently I got my pace down to a 7:15 min/mile as we did sprints up a hill and across a field (which was apparently around ½ a mile).

I was definitely pleased with how well, and quickly, I had seemed to recover from the marathon.