You’ve trained for months for the London Marathon, had hours dedicated to ensuring that your fitness level is on top form and you’ve had a regular fix of those feel-good endorphins lifting your spirits after every marathon training workout.

Now that the marathon has been and gone, you may be left struggling to focus on what goals to achieve next or may even be beating yourself up about how you could’ve performed better in the race. However, you must remember to keep your spirits high and recognize your incredible progress.

Whether you feel as though the race went perfectly, it was a mediocre performance or just didn’t go to plan at all, you’re not alone in feeling the post-marathon blues. However, help is on hand as Lee Matthews, Head of Fitness at Fitness First, is here to help you along the road of recovery with these post-marathon tips.

1) Don’t dwell on a bad or mediocre race. Think productively and improve:

•  Think Long Term
  So, you feel as though you’ve ran badly- but at least you did it. It’s important to remember that training is never wasted- recognize that you’ve made progress and move forward with it.
• Build Confidence
  Run a shorter distance race and appreciate that you’re still making long-term progress despite the fact that your race didn’t go as well as you planned. Schedule a shorter race 4-6 weeks after your marathon to prove to yourself that the marathon was just one bad race.
• Focus on the process, not the result.
  Remind yourself of this old-age lesson “focus on the process, not the result.”
• Conduct a post-mortem
  Make a list of all the possible factors that might have contributed to your disappointing race. It doesn’t matter whether you believe that these factors were within your control or not- if you think something may have affected your performance, write it down.
• Find a solution
  Write as many possible solutions or tactics you can implement in your training to prevent these possible occurrences from happening again.
• Focus
  Ensure you make these changes so that they work as actionable adjustments in your next race.

2) Don’t jump straight back on to the treadmill too quickly. Take time to recover:

•  Rest your body
  Not resting enough after the marathon is a huge mistake and can often lead to injury. Your body has undergone a tremendous amount of physical stress- skeletal muscle, muscle cells and the immune system are all severely compromised. Take time out to rest.

For more information about Fitness First visit Fitnessfirst.co.uk