Recover from ultra marathon

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becky f Nov 2015 11:34am, 19 Nov 2015 325 posts	0 becky f How long does it generally take to recover from an ultra? Till I can run again? I know everyone's different and to listen to my body. I ran an ultra last Saturday legs still a bit tired and sore in places I was going to have at least 2 weeks off from running as I am injury prone. How long do others wait till running again and when I run again what distance should I do? Do I do very short runs and for how long till I can increase milage? I've got a 10k race in just over 3 weeks thinking of doing it just as a training run not race pace
Liliaicha Nov 2015 1:18pm, 19 Nov 2015 9,419 posts	0 Liliaicha How long was the ultra?
FenlandRunner Nov 2015 1:42pm, 19 Nov 2015 6,872 posts	0 FenlandRunner For KinkyS and Flanker, it can be as little as 12 hours
Foxy Nov 2015 4:11pm, 19 Nov 2015 33,609 posts	0 Foxy 50km & you'll recover a lot quicker than 100 milers - takes me 6 weeks to recover from a 100 miler & 8 weeks to be back to my "normalish" Marathon times 3.15 - 3.25.
KinkyS Nov 2015 5:03pm, 19 Nov 2015 17,145 posts	0 KinkyS How far was the ultra, what sort of terrain, and how hard did you push it (survive and enjoy it or flat out as fast as you can?)... For me, I can be back running the next day if it was a steady effort and not too far, or broken for months if it was long and/or I killed myself for a time. In the end it is very individual to each person...
FenlandRunner Nov 2015 8:15pm, 19 Nov 2015 6,876 posts	0 FenlandRunner To be honest, my first quadzilla (four marathons in four days) took the most time to recover. I was knackered for months afterwards.
becky f Nov 2015 8:32pm, 19 Nov 2015 326 posts	0 becky f It was 50 miles it was on flat but really badly cambered and lots of potholes. Groin a bit sore and my foot outer side just under heel and back of ankle a bit sore. I didn't do it flat out 12 something pace but was really struggling last 3 miles.
Derby Tup Nov 2015 8:43pm, 19 Nov 2015 18,651 posts	0 Derby Tup A jog on grass the next day often helps me recover. It seems counter intuitive and feels terrible but does help (me). I think you answered your own question though: listen to your body I've lost skin off feet after some events and not run for weeks but raced a short fell race days after my Bob Graham (23 hrs in the Lakes)
Foxy Nov 2015 12:08am, 20 Nov 2015 33,611 posts	0 Foxy happy to be of service FR
FenlandRunner Nov 2015 8:04am, 20 Nov 2015 6,881 posts	0 FenlandRunner Foxy, the training effect was epic. Once I'd recovered I had a great year