Ragnar Trail Recovery: You’ll Be a WINner with these Tips!

Running a Ragnar Trail Relay is a wonderful experience. It’s running as a team sport, fun and challenging, invigorating and exhausting, fulfilling and draining, all at the same time. Taking time after your race to recover is essential. Here are my best tips for Ragnar Trail Recovery.

This post is sponsored by WIN Detergent. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

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Ragnar Trail Recovery

If you just finished a Ragnar Trail Relay (or any relay race) the chances are that you gave it your all. You were pushed to your limits and possibly beyond. I know I was.  You’re tired, dirty, dehydrated, sore, and probably pretty stinky too. Let’s get started on that Ragnar Trail Recovery.

Rehydrate

Hopefully, you’ve done your best to stay hydrated throughout your event, but in spite of that rehydration is in order. Start drinking immediately after the race. Adding electrolytes to water is an excellent way to restore balance to your system after sweating them all away. It may take a day or two to completely rehydrate.

Shower

Seriously, this will be the best shower ever! After two days of running on dusty or muddy trails, and minimal if any cleaning up, you may need a couple of showers to get all that dirt off! Not to mention that, if the weather was cold, as it was at Ragnar Trail Los Coyotes, that shower will help you finally warm up.

Sleep

 There is a reason that Ragnar puts a question mark after the word sleep in its tagline.  Most of us don’t get nearly enough over the course of that 24-hour run. I thought that having a campsite would help me get a little more sleep than trying to get comfortable in a van, but it was so cold that even wearing all of my clothes (really, I did!), I could not get warm enough to sleep. Expect to need a couple days of solid sleep to get back on track.

Refuel

Fueling properly is a bit challenging during a relay race because you’re either about to run, in the middle or a run, or just finishing a run, making it likely that your main source of fuel is a protein bar, gel, or some kind of trail mix. We did have plenty of food options at Ragnar Trail Los Coyotes, including an included dinner on Friday night, it’s just not the same as a balanced meal at home.

Rest

Taking a day or two completely off running it a great idea to allow your body to recover. Frankly, my legs were so sore the following day that I didn’t even want to take a walk. My feet were even swollen! Always remember, rest is when your body truly rebuilds, so taking the time off that you need will benefit you immensely. 

Stretching and Rolling

If you’re like me, you brought a foam roller to the relay and planned on using it and stretching throughout. Then between the running, the bonding with teammates, the checking to make sure that you were in the right place at the right time for your next leg…well, best-laid plans they say. Take the time during your recovery to spend some quality time with your foam roller and add in some gentle stretching. Your body will thank you.

Get Fascial Stretch Therapy or a Massage

In my opinion, Fascial Stretch Therapy (FST) is the best type of hands-on treatment you can get for recovery. It can help reduce pain, stimulate blood flow, hydrate muscles, and help get you back on the road faster. Massage is also great to improve recovery.

Get the Stink our of your Clothing with WIN Detergent!

The final step of recovery is getting your running gear back to normal. Just imagine. Three runs, no showers, stuffing dirty clothing into plastic bags where they stew throughout the race. That is the recipe for a stinky load of laundry!

Fortunately, WIN Detergent will solve this problem easily. Here’s the thing with workout clothing. It is designed to wick away moisture, but that very property allows the fabric to attract oils. Regular detergent is not designed to remove those oils, so they stay embedded in your workout clothing, attracting bacteria, which causes that stinky smell you notice after your workout. No, it really isn’t you, it’s your clothing!

WIN Detergent contains active ingredients that separates and removes those oils and bacteria, allowing your running wear to smell fresh again, even after a tough workout. 

Because these oils would also decrease the performance of your activewear, WIN Detergent will also help your clothing wick better and last longer. It will restore elastic fibers to their high-performance state! 

You can save 30% when you use the code WINSWPNK when you purchase WIN Detergent on Amazon! This code is good through November 30, 2018.

 

Realize that recovery may take a few days to even begin to feel “normal” again. Your body and your mind have been pushed hard, you were sleep deprived, and both fueling and hydration were probably below optimal. Expect to feel tired and a little fuzzy for a day or two. I promise you, as long as you’re following the advice here you will quickly start to feel like your old self again!

 

And Now It’s Time for the Running Coaches’ Corner!

Linkup with the #RunningCoachesCorner with @loramarie03, @MarcPelerin, and me! Bring your best #runningrelated posts, find new blogs to follow, and share your love of #running!Click To Tweet

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Weekly Linkups

My weekly linkups! Please stop by and check out all of the great recipes, workouts, and information that all these awesome bloggers share every week!

Meatless Monday with Sarah and Deborah
Meatless Monday with Annmarie  and Dixya
Tuesdays on the Run with Marcia, Erika, and Patty
Inspire Me Monday with Janice
Wild Workout Wednesday with Annmarie, Jen, and Nicole
The Plant-Based Potluck Party with Deborah
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Friday 5 2.0 with Rachel and Lacey and Meranda
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