How to Recover From Your First Half Marathon

I used the Hal Higdon training plan to train for my half marathon in October. I had my schedule all planned out up until race day, but I hadn’t really thought of what I would have to do to recover from the race.

Runners World Coach Jenny offers advice on recovering from a half marathon race in her column, “Ask Coach Jenny Recovery Plan Post-Half-Marathon.” Jenny recommends taking it easy after the race to the tune of one easy day for every mile of the race. That would be 13 days of light exercise for a half marathon.

In my first week after my half, I rode my bicycle as cross training and practiced yoga to keep my flexibility. I also started to concentrate on lifting weights at the gym. It took about two weeks for me to get the 'hunger' for running back. Since then, I have been training on Hal Higdon's 5K training plan.

How do you recover from long races?

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