How long should I rest following a marathon?
Recovery is fundamental after a marathon, yet far too many runners jump straight back into full training when the risk of injury and illness is high. Understandably, after all of that training taking some time off seems counter-intuitive and fills many runners with an irrational fear that they will lose much of their hard earned fitness. However, the intensive training for, and the marathon itself places almost every physiological system in the body under enormous strain and therefore this demands respect afterwards.
My advice would be to take 1-2 weeks completely off of running following a marathon and then to spend a further 2-3 weeks slowly building up your training again.
Louise has been running for over 20 years, with the last 16 of those at International level. She has represented Grea...