Marathon blues

You spend three to four months training for an event that has become like a beacon in your near term future.

You go through the last few weeks of tapering, with a mix of fear and anticipation and you wobble between confidence and belief in your training on one side and massive lack of self confidence on the other side.

You get to the start line and bask in the mass event, especially if it is a big city one or a Wold Major, the experience is unique. 3, 2, 1, you get through the start line… it’s on! 3, 4, 7 hours later, you have gone through all emotional states you know and more. You seen the finish line and you are through, you did it.

Especially if it is the first, the emotions are unparalleled. The sense of accomplishment, pure adrenaline rush keep on a cloud for hours.

Celebrations with friends, drinks, food, then a couple of days spent asking your legs why they hate you and cursing the inventors of stairs. But it’s ok, because during those two days you get to talk to anyone you know (and most people you don’t know) about your marathon).

You feel lost, aimless, tired in a unfamiliar way. You lack motivation. It feels nearly like depression… and as it happens, it is similar to it from a biochemical perspective. Post marathon blues, or Post Marathon Syndrome (‘PMS’, terrible acronym, I know) are a mix of psychological and chemical. As you can see on this interesting article from Abbots, dopamine and endorphins have spiked us during the race and during training respectively. And now they are gone.

Like many things in life, big crushes of good chemicals leave us flat and we can take a lot of bad decisions when that happens.

But it doesn’t need to be anything more than a short term thing, if we react in a constructive way. London was my third marathon and after the last two I knew what to expect, so here are a few suggestions:

1. Eat well and healthy: cheat if you were following a diet

Truth be told, you burn a lot of calories during a marathon, but you also get a lot of calories in unless you are pro. Gels, energy drinks, supporters’ offers, post run energy bars and, if you are like me, a mammoth for dinner are probably more than compensating what you have burn running.

But it’s ok: you have been training religiously for months and went through an impressive physical feat: treat yourself for a few days with healthy foods you like: help your recovery. And recovery is both physical and mental. Make yourself happy.

2. Stop talking about your Marathon to any poor soul that crosses your path

Yeah, I know, Interpol should prosecute them for it, but your friends and family don’t really care about your run. They don’t really care about the pikachu you overtook on mile 21… tell them once, and then accept the inevitable reality that you cannot tell them again. Even if they love you 🙂

3. Blog about the Marathon! 🙂

Yeah, guilty.

Pretend kind internet strangers will care about your ramblings. It extends the high for a few more days. Especially if you see those digital counters going up.

4. Take a break from running, do something else

We have all experienced it at times. Even if it sounds incredible, months and months of back to back runs with scheduled recoveries and plans followed maniacally can be mentally draining.

Do not run for a few days. Forget your training plans and trackers. Just live and do something else. Hike, drink, travel, work, get to you know your wife again: yes, that person who sleeps when you train and hunts your running socks around the house. She used to be pleasant, remember?

5. Don’t book another Marathon yet: take stock of what happened

Don’t just go on autopilot. It was an awesome experience, but objectives can vary and depending on what you want your fitness and running journey, you don’t need to run only marathons. Actually, even Eliud only runs a couple a year competitively.

How did the race go? How did the training cycle go? Is there something else you could do?

I was tempted to book another one again, but then I realised that a marathon block is not what I needed now and, if I were honest, also not something I could dedicate the necessary time to. So I went smaller. There will be time for Star number 3 next year.

6. Race planning, of course 🙂

Finally, based on the conclusions from your honest review of your race, training cycle and fitness needs, book a race or a few. Yeah, if you are like me you will need new objectives to train towards.

Space them in a way that allows for a productive cycle before them and also take in to account at least 3 weeks to recover from the marathon before you can build something up again.

Once you have booked the races, schedule your training. I like structure, so i truly enjoy giving myself not only an objective, but a step by step way to get there. But that’s just my preference

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But I managed to hold myself 🙂 Surprisingly.

I need to pick more reasonable targets, I need to accept I have to rebuild my speed and base and work myself up again. And shorter distances are better at that. So, as of today, I am proud(ish) to admit I have only booked myself into:

• The ASICS London 10K in July
• The Big Half in September
• The Kingston Half in October

How are you all doing? Hopefully back smiling into the next training block 🙂