The benefits of recovery runs
The other day I was looking for some insight on recovery runs versus general aerobic runs (a term used in Advanced Marathoning by Pfitzinger and Douglas) and ran across an excellent article, which I shared with my running buddies:
What's cool about Fitzgerald's article is that he really lays out the basis for recovery runs. Often (and usually on Tuesday's run) I have described my run and pace as "recovery" - but then I and my running partners get a bit competitive and speed up or throw in some hard intervals. Bad on us. Done properly, recovery runs should be at a consistent easy pace (where it is easy to carry on a conversation with partners, in heart rate zone 2, 65%-75% of maximum heart rate), at times including some not-all-out, maybe at mile pace 100-meter strides (what others call striders or stride outs) to stretch running muscles, activate faster twitch fibers and promote better running form and efficiency.
Recovery runs in Fitzgerald's estimation really don't clear lactate (what many of us were taught earlier in our running careers) but instead have two benefits:
"By sprinkling your training regimen with relatively short, easy runs, you can achieve a higher total running volume than you could if you always ran hard. Yet because recovery runs are gentle enough not to create a need for additional recovery, they allow you to perform at a high level in your key workouts and therefore get the most out of them."
And...
"I believe that recovery runs also yield improvements in running economy by challenging the neuromuscular system to perform in a pre-fatigued state... In a recovery run you start fatigued from your last key workout and therefore experience a healthy dose of fatigued running without having to run hard or far. For this reason, although recovery runs are often referred to as 'easy runs,' if they’re planned and executed properly they usually don’t feel very easy."
I am in marathon training and do my long runs on the weekend with a tempo run or something similar the day before or the day after. I usually take Monday off, so Tuesday has most always been recovery for me, whether the schedule has been written by my running coach Jim Spivey or my former marathon/Ironman coach Mike Plumb or me. I recognize that the timing for a recovery run can differ for others. But that does not negate the need for recovery runs, to help in recovery and add volume and/or to improve running efficiency.
Also, in build-up megacycles, after 3-4 weeks of build a "recovery week" is typically the norm and both distance and pace are backed off. In such a week, as well as the week after a tough race, multiple runs may be labeled "recovery."
With Fitzgerald's prompting and after a weekend with a 14.5 mile long run and an 8 mile general aerobic run in my log, I am looking forward to tonight's 6 mile recovery run with 6 X 100 meter strides!
