I believe there are two correct answers to this question:
- It depends
- As long as it takes
The more ultras that I’ve complete over the years, the quicker I’ve been able to recover from them. Generally speaking, it takes me about a week to physically feel back to 95% or so of normal. Mentally, it takes maybe another week to want to get back to my normal 40-50 miles per week training volume. Starting out, I would push to get back to training quicker than I probably should have due to insecurity. I didn’t want to lose all the fitness that I’d accumulated. (Need to get those miles in!) I had worked hard (oh so hard) to be able to finish these crazy distances and I didn’t want to have to retrace my steps from the begining again.
Over the past number of years, I’ve really leaned into the “want to” aspects of training. As in, when I don’t want to up my mileage and/or train then this is just my subconscious’ way of telling me I’m not recovered yet.
This longwinded preamble is to say that my recovery from C2C232 is taking a little longer than normal. I mean, it was only my longest run ever. That was done at a higher average effort level than any other ultra. And was bookended by a pair of 8 hour drives. [insert shocked face here] I came out of the race with a little something something in my right hip. Thankfully, it worked itself out over the first week and is no longer an issue. My legs have felt very lethargic, however are slowly starting to come around. I can see myself being back to 100% physically by the end of the week. So a little longer than normal, but not too much so.
Mentally, I’m ahead of where I normally am. I’d like to start ramping my mileage back up to 50-60mpw, however I’m waiting for my legs to get back into shape before getting back to that level. I’ll be around 30mpw this week. I have a race at the end of the month so it’s not like I’ll be able to get a decent training block in. My focus is more on making sure I’m 100% recovered than hitting any arbitrary mileage number. The more often you race, the more important it is to make sure you’re fully recovered or the next race will bury you and/or cause an injury. No thank you.
Fingers crossed I’m finally starting to get a little smart about this whole recovery thing.