Post run misery......

[Daleside]

Wasn't sure if this should go in the Health Thread but can anyone else tell me if they suffer post Ultra misery???

It happened to me the last time I did an Ultra - the day after I just feel really down...... not just achey and sore but proper miserable!! doesn't happen on your 'average run/race, just these long ones!

Is this normal or am I on my own with this??? (please say I'm not!!)

Lets just face it Emmi - fellrunning isnt really for us girls is it.

Take me for example - I've given it up and am spending more time in the kitchen and knitting.

[NotOnUrHelly]

I think my post run misery happened in the last hour and the hours after the event. I said to myself this was a pointless/stupid event, I'd much rather do a long fell race and I would never return to Rotherham in my life.

Yesterday and today, I have been thinking about the whole thing and will be back next year, and it was a very positive outing testing my body at 13hours +.

I stupidly stayed up all night to watch the Ricky Hatton fight after the run. So from 7am friday morning to 5am sunday morning I got 1hours sleep in that chagning room at the event centre. So I think I was riding on adrenline after the event. Also had a few cans and chinese while waiting for the fight to come on. Not the best recovery Im guessing.

It has really hit home today. i have been totally monged in work all day. I have to go out tonight with friends who have come up from London. Life does not stop because you have been stupid enough to sleep for 1 hour in 48.

Early nights for the rest of the week and my next long run is xmas on the fells, my knee is sore.

Jamie

[IainR]

I get it quite badly. I am on a high for 48-72 hrs then get a real intense low. I find the best way to get over it is to get some goals again, don't rush, but start to build the calender for next year, I feel sort of goalless because you build up to an event, then suddenly its gone.

Heard a few people say the same.

[SteveS]

I get it quite badly. I am on a high for 48-72 hrs then get a real intense low. I find the best way to get over it is to get some goals again, don't rush, but start to build the calender for next year, I feel sort of goalless because you build up to an event, then suddenly its gone.

Heard a few people say the same.

I'd have to agree, having another target seems to work for me. I've suffered from post run lows after my best two road marathons. I've had good runs, got the PBs but next day feel real low. I think it's partly due to the months spent training and planning for a target, and even if I've reached it that's it, it's over. It's as if the working to a goal bit keeps me going in the meantime. I've experienced similar even after setting a half-marathon PB I'd targetted, so for me it's not about pushing myself in a race for hours on end.

I like to make sure I have something lined up for the future before I've done a big event, and that seems to work for me. It doesn't have to always be longer and tougher and the last, it's worked just as well having the aim of a short summer fell race to follow the London Marathon.

I certainly felt low after my other 50, which was an end goal, but I feel good now following Rotherham. Hopefully it's because I was treating it as a stepping stone in training for the BG and I've still got a target, rather than the delayed onset of a low period.

[socks]

Don't think I do have lows. Certainly on a high after Rotherham - but it was a big thing I was aiming at, was slightly apprehensive about whether I'd be able to do it, and so well chuffed to finish. When I decided to do it several months ago, I remember feeling a sense of purpose again. I'd not been low, but obviously just bumbling along until then.

[Basil]

I get it too- as much about having achieved a significant milestone, then having to pause before setting your sights on the next challenge.
RW call it the "post marathon blues".

For me the blues came about half way round the RR event.

[Stolly]

At heart I'm an (annoyingly) chirpy optimist so I don't really get down. I've never ran an ultra either but in April I did run the 3 peaks twice in the space of two weeks with the added handicap of not being at all fit and felt completely and utterly broken at the end of the second run (the actual fell race). The first run, which I had taken steady, had gone okayish but in the race I suffered miserably from cramp in my calves and thighs after Whernside and at the finish had one of those complete body cramp attacks (feels a bit like an all over heart attack and probably brought on by dehydration) which meant that it took me over 15 minutes to bend myself sufficiently to just get into my car. The drive home was a nightmare - I felt ever so sleepy and had to keep stopping for cat naps or to relieve pain from cramps.

Once home, apart from all that, I felt massively disappointed - I wasn't as fit as I had been pretending I was, I was crippled and my time for the race was crap. So I had a bit of a downer for a day or so.

Mind you, Emmilou your time for the RR looked really good to me so I can't imagine that you're down because of that. Is it pain miserable or just miserable miserable?

[IainR]

I don't get it through dissapointment, if anything I'm Ok after a dissapointing race because I instantly have focus.

[Stolly]

I don't get it through dissapointment, if anything I'm Ok after a dissapointing race because I instantly have focus.

Fair point but, when you've been kidding yourself that you are fit and know what you're doing, it comes as a big surprise when you realise that you aren't and you don't

[nikalas]

I've had quite similar feelings myself... generally a bit of euphoria, but mainly relief, straight after and then a bout of generally feeling low. The bigger and more grueling the event the bigger the crash. The worse was after the Marathon des Sables when I was an absolute bloody nightmare for about two weeks after (really useful as I got married three weeks after.. cheered me up a bit, hated the sandy beach on honeymoon though). I got really fed up with people, who I thought had no comprehension of what I'd been through, asking me about it and the only folks I wanted to be with were the guys who'd been out there with me. What was interesting is that they'd warned us beforehand about this occurring so it must be a fairly common thing. Now, for my job, I write about a lot of the events I do and find this very cathartic. It seems to remind me about what I've achieved and kicks me up the backside a bit... maybe give it a try?