So your big event has come and gone? After months of hard work and dedication, you’re smiling about the time you did in the 94.7. Or perhaps after Sunday you’ll be gloating about how you pulled your team for miles in the Double Century. But then something strange takes place: from an on-the-day chuffed-with-yourself high, you plummet to a down-in-the dumps low.

No worries. This is normal, say the experts. It’s your body’s way of suggesting it needs a bit of TLC. Rest and recovery are the keys to consolidating your newly-gained fitness so you can take it up another level for the next big event.

While post-event depression is not something that your average South African athlete wants to talk about that easily, just go to any of the websites of the big events around the globe, and you’ll see that this is a universal issue. And whether the sport is cycling, running or swimming, the symptoms are all the same – and it’s the podium people as well as the tail-enders who experience them. Here’s a writer on Ironmanlive.com: “You''ve crossed the finish line, indulged in the post-race celebration, and still wearing your finisher''s medal is starting to earn you some strange looks… For many athletes, the period immediately after a big event, such as a marathon or triathlon, can be depressing.”

On Active.com, writers mention “emptiness, apathy, perhaps even mild depression.” On Chicago Athlete (www.chicagoaa.com), another writer puts it like this: “For many athletes, the days and weeks following a major endurance event can be harder than the race itself. Already tired and sore, you may also feel anxious, irritable or antisocial.”

So… You’re not alone. Of course there are a bunch of reasons:

• The event has been a major focus but then is suddenly over and there’s nothing to fill its place.
• You’re been training with friends and now you don’t see them as much.
• You’ve been doing something that’s made you feel great about yourself, but now you don’t have that same level of daily affirmation.

The list can go on and on. Bottom line is that it''s not just in your head. The experts agree that there are physiological reasons for the post-race slump. You ask so much of your body for so long during training and the race. Once you''ve met your goal and need less from it, the body responds by shutting down to recuperate, say Jim Taylor and Terri Schneider in their book ‘The Triathlete''s Guide to Mental Training’ (Velopress, 2006). 'This physical downturn also expresses itself mentally in thoughts and emotions.'

The good news is that, if examined carefully, those thoughts can have positive outcomes on your future health and strength. Talk particularly to anybody who’s done a tough multiday event like a long adventure race or cycling stage racing and you’ll find they’ve often had epiphanies about their bodies’ needs after these long events. During this period of your body’s general grumpiness, it is often less tolerant of things it might at other times put up with. Now’s a good time to really examine you’re body’s responses: perhaps you are mildly allergic to a certain food, a prescription medicine you’re on might not really agree with you, or you might be deficient in certain minerals and vitamins.

Rest and recovery will get you over the blues. This means following all the rules of good solid balanced eating plans, of course. And with the extra time you probably have on your hands, you can prepare colourful salads and complex meals or find restaurants with interesting menus, in so doing bringing the variety that your diet has probably lacked.

Don’t neglect the nutritional supplements that stood by you during training. With your body in recovery phase, it needs all the help it can get. A product like FastFuel’s Rebuild, for example, is specifically formulated for the recovery phase, containing high quality proteins, complex carbohydrates and a full amino acid profile, as well as L-Glutamine and L-Taurine to increase muscle cell growth, aid protein synthesis and the absorption of sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium.

And then, after this re-balancing, dream again. Find something new to get passionate about and watch your zest return.

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