A disciplined rest and recovery programme is essential for anyone serious about running, writes Roy Stevenson
Programming rest and recovery into your training schedules ensures some important benefits. You’ll be healthier, which means you’ll have minimal interruptions to your training from illness or injury, so your training will be more consistent. And given adequate time to recover from the stresses of training, your body’s musculo-skeletal and cardio-respiratory systems will adapt faster, making you stronger and aerobically fitter.
The key is to stress or overload your body with a hard workout, then allow it to recover while it adapts. These days, it is clear that overload ( a well-known training principle) and recovery are the magic ingredients of any distance running training programme.
Overload and recovery are the yin and yang, representing balance in training, and in this article we’ll look at what conventional wisdom says about the major non-nutritional factors in recovery, as well as outlining a training programme that will help maximise your recovery.
KEY FACTORS IN RECOVERY
Our genetics are a major player in our ability to recover from hard workouts. Some runners are flattened for days after a hard interval training workout, while others are able to run a solid ten miles the following day without the slightest ache or pain.
If you consistently recover from your training workouts within 24-48 hours, count your blessings. If, like me, you hobble around for days after an intense workout, you are going to have to live with the fact that you’re slower to recover and need a plan for longer recovery;. i.e allow 2-3 days of easy running or (gasp !) actually take a day off completely from running.
AGE
Any master athlete will tell you that as we age, we need more recovery time. Over the age of 40, we need anywhere from 1-3 days of rest and/or recovery workouts after a strenuous running session. I leave it up to the reader to decide when to schedule a rest day, and when to do light running workouts to ensure good recovery.
Cross-training is invaluable here, as you can still do a solid cardiovascular workout while giving your legs a break from the pounding. Thus you can train most, if not all, days of the week without interruption. And cross-training can be combined with strength training, something that most runners are notably remiss at doing.
Generally, older runners should be moderating their running sessions, supplementing or substituting their recovery sessions with cross-training activities, and allowing more days between stressful running workouts to recover completely.
GENDER
Women tend to take longer to recover from high stress workouts than men, mostly because of hormonal differences.
Testosterone, the dominant male sex hormone, plays a big role in muscle growth and repair, giving an advantage to men.
Sleep
Quality and amount of sleep contribute significantly to your recovery. Good sleep is essential for your body to repair itself mentally and physically, and conversely, a chronic (long term) inadequate volume and quality of sleep will impair your recovery from training.
Running Shoes
Treat yourself to a new pair of running shoes; right now. While you’re out pounding the roads it’s not the lightness of the running shoe that is important – it’s what is between you and the road. Chances are that your current pair of training shoes has lost some cushioning;the Ethyl Vinyl Acetate (EVA) material in running shoes breaks down within a few months, and somewhere between 600 and 800 miles of running.
Generally, the more expensive the shoe model, the more comfortable and the more cushioning and motion control devices it will have. Don’t skimp on your running shoes. The extra cost will be more than compensated for by the extra comfort and extra protection that higher quality shoes offer you.
Running Surfaces
Consider the surfaces you typically run on. Every time we land, our body absorbs the impact of 1.5 to 3 times our body weight. This total impact adds up to tens of thousands of pounds, even over a short distance like five miles. Shocking! No wonder about 60% of us runners get injured every year.
What can we do to reduce this impact? Running on grass, trails, or dirt surfaces significantly reduces landing shock when we run. Can you do some trail running or at the very least jog around a local football pitch? Concrete surfaces should be avoided at all costs, and asphalt is only a slightly better running surface, so minimise these.
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7 Steps to Faster Recovery
1 – PLAN ‘REGENERATION’ WEEKS’
These are simple to design. Schedule one week of lower intensity and shorter duration running every three (or four) weeks. This ensures adequate recovery of your muscle tissue, refuelling of your energy reserves, relieves the monotony of your standard training schedules, and gives you a psychological break from rigorous training.
How slow should your training efforts be during the regenerative week? Nice and easy- about 60% to 70% of your maximal heart rate. It should feel like you are cruising well below your standard maximum training pace and you should be able to talk comfortably while running.
How much should you shorten your training efforts? Aim to reduce your standard daily training distances by 25% to 50%. You’ll find that the following week you’ll feel renewed and your training pace should be faster than normal. A few days off or of reduced running actually improves performance as the muscle tissue recovers, rebuilds and stores more glycogen.
2 – FOLLOW THE HARD-EASY PRINCIPLE
Follow a hard training effort with one of more easier training sessions. Recovery runs should be done at a lower intensity than your hard workouts, with the objective of enhancing your recovery. And don’t forget, a long training run, even if it is at moderate pace, is still considered a hard run. Long runs deplete your carbohydrate stores and cause considerable muscle damage – definitely qualifying them as hard runs.
3 – LEARN HOW TO REST
This might be considered heresy in some running circles, but the athlete who can discipline himself/herself to take the
occasional day off when feeling exhausted will recover faster than the one who flogs himself/herself in training every day.
4 – DON’T TRAIN HARD UNTIL YOU ARE READY
If you feel fatigued while training hard, your body will not adapt properly and your immune system will be impaired, making you more susceptible to any bacteria and infections going around.
5 – DON’T NEGLECT YOUR WARM- DOWN
The warm-down is a grossly neglected technique for speeding up your recovery. This phase is designed to adjust your body from exercise to rest.
A basic cool-down should include decreasing, light aerobic activity (such as 5-10 minutes of walking) followed by some light stretching and relaxation exercise (such as yoga poses or stretches)
6 – POST RACE RECOVERY
The rules are simple for recovering from a race. Rest or jog until you feel recovered. You’re recovered when your legs are no longer stiff and sore, your muscles are not sore to touch and and you have regained your energy for daily activities.
Cross-training at a low intensity can really help with this. For example, cycling, deep-water running and walking on the elliptical trainer are all non-impact aerobic activities that do not stress the legs, while maintaining your cardiovascular fitness.
Avoid weight training for your legs until they are fully recovered.
7 – USE A HEART MONITOR TO GAUGE YOUR RECOVERY
Heart rate and the heart rate monitor are now commonly used to assess whether a runner is working harder than normal to achieve the same pace and distance (i.e. under-recovered)
Early morning heart rate should be established over several mornings upon waking. The average should be calculated and on ensuing mornings if the resting heart rate is elevated by more than five beats/ minute, it is a reasonable indicator that you are still recovering from the previous day’s training.
You can also establish your normal cruising pace heart rate. If the heart rate is significantly elevated when training, it could be a sign that your recovery from the previous day’s training is incomplete.
