Smart Recovery
I wrote a blog post in 2015 entitled the Art of Recovery. The gist of that post was to run slow, really slow, a couple days a week and particularly after a race. Well enough, but there’s a whole lot more to consider. Also, that post was not specifically geared to masters runners whereas this one is. I’m drawing some points made by Peter Reaburn in his comprehensive book, The Masters Athlete. The main purpose of recovery is to avoid injury. As masters runners, we are particularly vulnerable to injury after races or an extremely intense workout or series of workouts. For a 5K, the recovery period is three to five days, for a half marathon a couple weeks, and several weeks for a marathon. Research suggests one day of recovery for every mile raced. However, this assumes the following: Assuming there are no red flags flying from these four points (please be honest with yourselves on each point), then we have to look at our weekly training schedule to make sure we’re not training too hard or long or competing too often. Specifically with respect to recovery, racing puts stress on various systems. There is an emotional and hormonal … Continue reading