What are good recovery tips after a long distance race?

[martyfellow]

I'm over 30 now and I feel that my recuperation period is starting to be longer. What home remedies do you think minimize the recovery time?

Updates

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Rate the bloomin' question people...

[cazza3]

A good warm down to stop the legs from seizing up and reduce your heartbeat. Sports drink and water to restore fluids, sodium and electrolytes, I love a packet of what we call crisps (US - chips) simply for their salt content and Lucozade sport which I know is not readily available outside the UK and Ireland but its supreme and a banana or two. And best of all an ice bath, hurts like a bitch at first but it reduces inflammation of tissues and joints, relieves the stiffness and soreness of your muscles and also helps speed up recovery time but don't soak in a

hot tub it does exactly the opposite and may even do damage. Most importantly though relax for a while don't go running again for a few days to help your body recover just do some light stretching

[cazza3]

Rate the bloomin' answers:-)

[martyfellow]

You can't rate the bloomin' answers!

[cazza3]

Upvote/down vote, it wasn't meant literally or seriously

[cutestkathy]

Deep tissue massage, right away after you finish the course, really helps. Also, doing hourly stretching for the next couple of days is a must.

[martyfellow]

I'll try this. I've done this before but not so systematically..

[aMuse]

Anyone have tips for your arches. I'm pretty good everywhere else after a race but man the arches of my feet, they don't hurt race day but the next morning sometimes I can barely walk. =P

[Belgie]

Isotonic drinks and a protein shake. Pineapple juice is also one of the fastest sweet things you can take to hit the blood, for that extra boost from the natural sugars.

[JanJan]

Eat lots of protien before and after workouts. Foods with protien are eggs, meat, nut products, etc. Get your vitamins somehow, by popping a multi-vitamin (not on an empty stomach, however) or drinking some fruit juice. The best recovery drink so far is chocolate milk, becacuse of the combination of electrolites with sugar and calcium. Juice boxes help keep you refreshed an energized too. I'm a sports medic, btw.

[lyssams]

believe it or not, one of the easiest and best recovery drinks is chocolate milk, it has the perfect protein: dairy ratio (google it) . This combined with stretching and maybe even a heating pad will help a ton, and make you feel 10 times better the next day.

[kereru]

google Interval training.

pick a distance, say 50/100m, the width of a field, a couple of lamposts etc run that dstance as fast as you can then walk back to the beginning, repeat over and over for about 15 minutes or however long you can...

[GymStatus]

protein or gatorade-like drinks or a small snack