If you crossed the finish line at yesterday’s Chevron City to Surf, congratulations – whether it was your first 12km, a PB attempt, or just another Sunday out with the Perth running crowd. The medal’s earned, but the work isn’t quite done. What you do in the next week matters almost as much as the training that got you to the start line, and it’s the window where we see a lot of avoidable niggles turn into genuine injuries.
We see this pattern every year in our Tuesday night Perth Run Collective sessions: runners nurse sore legs for a few days, feel “back to normal,” and jump straight back into full training – only to find the ache they ignored has settled in for the long haul. Here’s how to recover properly, tell normal soreness from something that needs attention, and get back into training without undoing the fitness you just built.
What a Race Like This Actually Does to Your Body
Whether you ran the full City to Surf distance or the shorter option, you asked your muscles, tendons, and joints to absorb far more repeated impact than most training runs – often at a faster pace than you’re used to holding, and frequently on minimal taper. That combination causes microscopic damage to muscle fibres (completely normal and part of how you adapt), along with a genuine spike in the load travelling through tendons like your Achilles and plantar fascia, and through bone. Your body handles this well when you let it – the issue is what happens when recovery gets skipped.
The First 48 Hours: What Helps and What Doesn’t
Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) typically peaks 24–48 hours after a hard effort and is a normal response to unaccustomed load. In this window:
- Keep moving gently – an easy walk or light spin promotes blood flow far better than sitting completely still
- Prioritise sleep and protein intake – this is when most of the actual tissue repair happens
- Don’t reach for the anti-inflammatories as a default – some inflammation is part of the adaptation process, and blunting it routinely may slow the training benefit you just earned
- Hold off on hard training – this isn’t the week to also start a new strength block or chase a fast parkrun
General muscle soreness that’s roughly symmetrical and easing day by day is expected. What we’re watching for is anything that doesn’t fit that pattern.
DOMS or a Niggle? How to Tell the Difference
This is the distinction that matters most, and it’s the one runners most often get wrong under the glow of a good race. Get it checked rather than assuming it’ll settle if you notice:
- Pain that’s sharp, localised to one specific spot, or one-sided rather than general soreness spread through both legs
- Discomfort that’s worse first thing in the morning or after sitting for a while, rather than easing with gentle movement
- A tendon (Achilles, patellar, hip) that feels stiff, thickened, or tender to pinch – this is exactly the pattern we described in our piece on Achilles tendinopathy in runners
- Heel or arch pain that’s sharpest with your first few steps of the day, a hallmark of plantar fasciitis
- Any pain that’s still present, unchanged, more than five to seven days after the race
- Swelling around a joint, or pain that makes you visibly alter how you’re walking
None of these are reasons to panic, but they are reasons to get an assessment before you resume training – far better to spend fifteen minutes with a physio now than to spend the next race cycle managing an injury that became chronic because it was loaded through too early.
Easing Back Into Running: A Staged Return
How quickly you build back up should depend on how you’re pulling up, not on the training plan for your next event. As a general guide for recreational and distance runners recovering from a hard race effort:
- Days 1–3: Rest or active recovery only – walking, easy swimming, or gentle cycling
- Days 4–7: Short, easy runs at a conversational pace if soreness has genuinely settled, with a full rest day in between
- Week two: Gradually return to your normal easy running volume before reintroducing any faster or hillier sessions
- From there: Rebuild intensity gradually rather than all at once – this is exactly the kind of training load spike we cover in our article on training load error and why it often leads to running injuries
If you’ve got another event on the calendar – and Perth’s spring running season is about to get busy, with the Sunset Coast Marathon later in September and the Perth Running Festival in October – it’s tempting to shorten this process. Resist it. A properly recovered runner going into a training block outperforms a fatigued one every time.
When to See a Physio
Book in with one of our sports physiotherapists if you’re carrying anything from the list above, if last weekend has flared up an old injury, or if you simply want a plan for building back into training before your next event. Where the issue involves rebuilding strength or capacity, our exercise rehabilitation programs are built specifically around this kind of graded return to running.
Well done on getting to that start line and beyond. If something’s not quite right as the post-race soreness fades, book an appointment with our team – and if you’re after some company on your next training block, our Perth Run Collective meets every Tuesday night from the clinic.
