Recovery Mode

"Recovery!? I don't need no stinking recovery" -Me.

Admittedly, I've never been good at recovering after a race. I'm usually itching to go after a few days. However, this time (post Boston) I've committed, and I'm forcing myself to go easy for 20 days before I jump into my next training phase, which is going to be a speed focused 22 week doozy. It's been 18 days. I'm excited.

I've heard the old adage that recommends one day of rest for each mile raced. I think that's B.S., and not a suffer better approach. If you're fit, and you get proper rest, and you eat a healthy diet of varied, nutritious, whole foods (we'll get into diet plenty in future posts), you don't need 26.2 days to recover from a marathon. In fact, I recently read in Jack Daniels' book, Daniels' Running Formula - 3rd Edition, that he recommends one day of recovery for every 3km raced, which I think is a more reasonable approach.

There are plenty of ultra-runners out there these days blowing the one day of rest for each mile theory out the water (Tim Olson, Rob Krar, and Ian Sharman to name a few), and killing it in the process. Granted, these guys are the elite of the elite in the ultra world, but their approach towards training and racing is a microcosm of a larger movement of athletes challenging barriers in the running world.

So, when it comes to "recovery," I simply feel it's important to learn to listen to your body and know your mindset. Just as there's no single training plan that works for everyone across the board, there's also no set recovery plan that works for everyone. 

I know recovery is important. It's on recovery days that our muscle tissues, ligaments, tendons and bones heel and make themselves stronger. But, if becoming a better runner and racing as often as you can is important, then it behooves you to learn how to recover faster and more efficiently. You might surprise yourself.