Recovery is like a barbecue. The more options you have, the better it is.

Ultrarunner David Laney pushes the limits running through the mountains year round and knows a thing or two about making recovering a priority to stay healthy while piling on the miles. 

Get a few recovery tips from David and a peek at his post-run 23 minute (yep, just 23 minutes) recovery routine.

Recovery is like a barbecue. The more options you have, the better it is. Did you know some people like raisins in potato salad? I think that tastes bad. That has nothing to do with recovery, that's just my opinion. Ok, So back to recovery. 

We’ve all read enough conflicting articles on why certain recovery methods work or don’t work, most of them have real clickbait-y titles. The fact is you know you feel better when you do certain things. You know you feel better the next day when you foam roll, you know icing feels terrible for a few minutes, then feels great. You know eating and drinking after a workout will make your day better and you know going straight from your hard session to a long car ride is BAD.     

David pushing the limits and vert atop picturesque peaks. 

When it comes to recovery (and barbecue), the more the merrier. With recovery find what techniques work for you. The sooner you deliberately practice these techniques after a hard session, the better it works. Endurance athletes typically use a broad and diverse approach to their training, combining strength training, cross training and physical therapy work in with their primary discipline, but when it comes to recovery, we often drink chocolate milk or do 30 seconds of stretching while scrolling twitter and call it good. The hours following a hard effort or race are pivotal for recovery, but often rather than filling these hours with ice baths, foam rolling, compression boots and relaxing walks, we rush to work or jump in a car because...Life. 

Race Relief Cold Therapy Gel is a tool to add in with the foam roller and lacrosse ball to your recovery arsenal. It's a quick and easy way to kick start the recovery process.

Take a few minutes to slow down post workout, listen to the machine you just ran to the limit. Notice any areas of fatigue, tightness or unusual pain. A few minutes of attention to the body can catch an issue before it becomes an injury. Taking 3 minutes to gently massage Race Relief into muscles to loosen legs and clear stiffness out of any beat up joints can be the difference between waking up feeling refreshed or waking up feeling like you aged 30 years overnight. 

Here is my post workout recovery routine following a cool down jog.

• Food: 300-500 calories within 15 minutes
• Light stretching and foam rolling: 3-5 minutes
• Deeper rolling with lacrosse ball and physical therapy exercises: 2-3 minutes
• Race Relief Cold Therapy Gel massage on legs hitting any sore or tight areas: 3-5 minutes
• Ice bath: 5-10 minutes

Total time: 23 minutes (at most!)

This routine isn’t perfect, or good for everyone. Find your recovery routine based on what works for you and what you have time for to get back to hard training, faster!

Learn more about what Race Relief can do for your recovery.