Recovering from Buffalo Stampede & rebuilding towards UTMB
Exploring details about recovery that I'd wish I'd known before taking on my first mountain ultra's.
I’m eating an amazing slice of raisin toast at home, and the butter I’m using has the slogan ‘good things take time’. Just the message I needed, from a packet of butter.
Recovery from the Buffalo 100km was smooth sailing, but slow sailing too. Before the event, I had an estimate that perhaps I’d need 4 weeks to start feeling good again, physically and mentally. I based this calculation off the experience that I didn’t truly feel myself for 8 weeks post GPT100miler and Snowdonia. They were both in the 24-26hr range with substantial elevation gain and loss. Surely a 10.5ish hour mountain race would take half the time to recover from? Wrong.
While the race time was shorter, the intensity was much higher. The speed of everything, the impact, much higher. I felt this race in my joints, my knees more-so than ever from the fast, hard packed fire-trail downhills. It took every part of 5-6 weeks to get back to feeling good and responding to training well again.
The best part of this recovery process? Getting to enjoy the trails in recovery with no pressure of a goal race near. A refreshing reminder that over-analysing stats or progress while running, can distract us from how magic the experience of where we are running is. It was important to come back to just enjoying being outside, purely for enjoyment and the sense of freedom. Much nicer than analysing where my heart rate is sitting relative to my grade adjusted pace (about the only metric I can get an approximate real-time sense of my fitness while training in the Blue Mountains, not much flat running around).
It’s now 8 weeks post-race, and Ultra-trail Australia rolled into Katoomba (the town I currently call home) a week ago. It was a nice reminder, that even when you feel good physically, I definitely wouldn’t have mentally been in a position where I’d be willing to dig deep in a race format again that soon after a 100km race. It has been feeling an effort enough just to do grocery shopping, I am still experiencing waves feeling lazy. But that’s nothing out of the ordinary for me!
The nice thing about having a few longer race recoveries under the belt, is that you know to take it easy on yourself, and not to expect anything great from your body or your mind for a while. You will likely be very compromised if you’ve raced hard! Enjoy it, you earned it.
We’re all different
The reason I’m writing this whole thing is because I wish someone had told me to be more conservative returning to training after a mountain ultra. I wish they told me I would experience impaired focus, alertness, more mood swings than usual for up to 2 months after a 100 mile race. Not in a bid to persuade me not to do it, just so I could set my expectations a little more realistically, and be kinder on myself. Being kind to yourself in the recovery process, helps you recover quicker. Resisting the fact your recovery is slow, is one of the most counter-productive things you can do, it’s just more stress.
The first time I ever raced an 85km mountain race (MIUT85km in Portugal), I was under the naive impression that the following week you just get back out there and run again (and sure, some people do, but should you?). Soon after, I found my leg giving way underneath me to 10/10 sharp pain, and was destined for a 2 weeks on the stationary bike. No dooming diagnosis, just a body that had clearly had enough of the treatment I was giving it. It needed rest.
I think the best thing we can do for ourselves in recovery is block out what anyone else is doing, and listen closely to our sensations and mood. If it takes you a few weeks longer to get back, it’s always better than spending time on the sidelines in the future from ignoring the warning lights.
We all respond differently to different things. Knowing what you personally need is so important.
Post-Buffalo I took a good 9/10 days off running, but did get back on the bike fairly soon, perhaps 4 days after. The intensity of the riding was so low however, I could tell by the sensations that there was no room for any intensity and I’d likely do damage muscularly in the early phases due to tightness. Riding around Katoomba is pretty hilly (understatement), I was basically doing the bare minimum to get up the hill and then just cruising around. Narrowneck is our dreamy local bike ride (pictured below), I definitely hiked the bike up the hills in some of the early phases returning back to riding.
I found huge amounts of joy in being outside again and getting to soak up the trails and fresh air. The difference being outside was making to my mood and energy was huge, and something I attribute to promoting good recovery. Ever since a young kid, I’ve just always wanted to be outside, and now as I’m getting older (turning 30 this year, what’s that noise all about?), I realise the time I spend outside is very closely linked with my overall well-being.
When I did get back to running, I kept it strictly to zone 1 for most of the first week, and focused on running in places that made me feel relaxed and grateful to be outside. Initially my heart rate seemed pretty normal, and then as the weeks progressed it seemed reasonably elevated which was more in line with what I was expecting. After 100mile races I find my heart rate can be elevated for up to 6-8 weeks. This time running 100km my heart rate seemed to be elevated for around 4 weeks; not substantially but noticeable. When it drops to normal levels, it is a good indicator for me that I’m recovering more fully, and I think the most obvious place to observe this is on my downhill heart rate (when you’re not properly recovered, HR will remain elevated when it usually would drop more considerably).
I made an effort this time to explore new trails, to make it more about the new experience and avoid me comparing how I usually feel on that certain familiar trail. Anything particularly runnable felt pretty horrible, so I sometimes avoided it. Jogging easily down stairs or slower technical trails and hiking up felt friendlier on the body (didn’t require as much range of motion from my stiff body) for me than running a fire-trail like Narrowneck at times, and I often find this is the case after strength training also. This is a personal preference, most would advise to stay away from steeper running after strength training, but for me I personally love a steeper day after strength where the terrain lets you hike and do slower movement for your targeted zone of aerobic training.
The first week of running felt average sensation wise, muscular fatigue and joint stiffness would increase in the second half of runs and I had that deep sense of ‘If I do anything too fast, it wouldn’t end well’. Cautiously I ran, and was so happy to be out in the National Park on the trails, and was feeling lighter mentally already.
This time around I added around 10mins per run per day onto my short runs to see how the body was responding. It kept responding fairly well, with the onset of fatigue seeming to be later and later in the run. This is something I’ve actually noted Zach Miller doing post-race before, and I was keen to try it. Feels like a pretty cautious way to return into some longer running without taking much risk, and definitely worked well this time around.
Light strength training came back in week 2 post-race, and this is where things started trending upwards and the trust in the body started to return. Week 3, back into heavy strength training. Still feeling tight, but sensations now much more normal. Trust in the body is back. Feeling of any fitness or flow is definitely not back.
For me personally, the most risky part of returning to running post-race feels like the faster flowing/less technical downhill running. For the first few weeks I try to let go of any idea of running well downhill, and just minimise the impact of the downhills. I was a glimpse of my former self, and had fully accepted that I would be shuffling slowly down every descent for a while.
The uphills generally feel pretty good pretty soon after, and any sessions I get back into are on solid uphills to minimise impact.
I once again found mindfulness meditation really handy in the recovery process. There’s a very strong tendency to want to cling onto the connection, positive experiences of a big weekend of trail racing like Buffalo Stampede. But I think it’s this very clinging onto a feeling and experience that is so long gone already, that denies us from feeling content with where we are right now, with whatever is right in front of us now. The same goes to comparison to how we felt before the race, to how we feel post race. It’s just not productive at all. Mindfulness meditation helps us sit with and accept how we are in this present moment.
Simple things that may help you in your next recovery phase:
- Take the pressure off by taking off your watch. I don’t believe the stress of looking at a high-resting HR, a low HRV, or a crap sleep score is going to help you feel any better or recover any faster in the initial phases. When you start feeling better and training more normally, return to monitoring what you usually do if you’d like.
- Mindfulness meditation: Give it a try if you haven’t! The headspace app is an easy-to-use bible, and even has sports recovery meditation packs on it.
- Incorporate easy riding in the early phase to get the body moving, blood flowing. Gives the body some grace before returning to the impact of running.
- Get out into nature, places that give you energy and bring you joy
- Keep the early initial runs really conservative or zone 1 almost serving as a screening test for the sensations your body is signalling. Let the signals guide you in the initial weeks, not a fixed training plan.
- Home-cooked meals! Lots of them.
- Catch up with friends even if your brain is telling you to isolate and stay home, it always feels good after!
- A couple supplements I swear by in the recovery process is CurraNZ, and Pillar Magnesium. These, coupled with adequate electrolyte, protein and daily food/nutrition intake makes a big difference in my levels of soreness and energy.
Rebuilding for UTMB
Training is back up and running as per normal now, which feels great. I am currently in a de-load week, which has been received well by my brain, and is probably the reason why I’ve found some extra energy and time to write here.
Training the last 3-4 weeks has been around the 15hr mark, with 3-5hrs of that being very easy Z1 effort on the bike. Despite the lower volume currently, the intensity of the training on the session days has been progressively right back up there again, and I’ve definitely felt the benefit of some really challenging uphill sessions.
The first few sessions back was a big shock to the system, and pretty humbling. I don’t know why, but sometimes when you do a big race and endure something that long, you’d expect you’d have a little bit more resilience to handle a couple shorter intervals, but nope the suffering feels just as intense.
After Buffalo I reduced my heat training a fair bit, in a bid to reduce a bit of stress for a while. I find heat training can really knock me around mood wise and mentally. The last two weeks I’ve increased the heat training again, which I do on the stationary bike inside with the heater and layers on, or on the treadmill with layers.
Over last summer, I was surprised to see how much fitness I could maintain with 8-10hrs of running and 3-5hrs of riding per week, with two quality sessions. I’m currently finding that same effect right now, and am feeling really fit heading into June as the training load is set to start ramping up beginning next week.
Next week marks the first week of heavier training, with two solid sessions and a back to back 5hr and 3hr run, of which I’ll get to do in the Grampians/Gariwerd in Victoria while down there for the GPT100 camp! Pretty excited to get out and explore, and perhaps a stop in to Bright on the way back home for half a week or so is due in order to get some UTMB specific long uphills and downhills whilst there isn’t any significant snow on our Aussie alps.
We’ve enjoyed some good long climbs in the Kanangra-Boyd National Park area recently which feels like some really solid uphill training for UTMB, and will be a staple long-run from now until heading to Europe in late July!
All in all, really feels like the UTMB phase has started, which is equal parts exciting and scary. Time seems to be disappearing pretty fast at the moment, and as I was going to bed last night I had that sinking feeling that no matter what I do before now and UTMB, it’s going to feel like a “I’ve tried my very best, here goes nothing” kind of hail mary!
Hope you’re all having a great week, and hope there was something in here that was of value to you! Thank you for your time, and for reading.
With love,
Mike
Great read! All the best with your training. Loved your line "important to come back to just enjoying being outside, purely for enjoyment and the sense of freedom", so true. Running can get pretty manic — stripping it back to the simplicity of just being outside and enjoying the space your in is a great reset for the mind and soul.