Imagine if more running was the reason you couldn’t run more. Hard to get your head around, right? But it can be true. When you spend too much time taxing your body with speedwork and long runs without enough recovery, you increase your risk of getting injured as well as seeing plateaus in your training.  

The answer? Recovery runs.   

What is a recovery run? 

A recovery run is a slow-paced run that you do after a longer one, speedwork session or just a hard bout of training. It shouldn’t take you more than 20 - 30 minutes and you’ll be running at an easy conversational pace. If you have a heart rate monitor, you’ll want to keep it within a zone 1 or 2 range. If you don’t have one, then you’ll want to be running at either a two or three out of ten difficulty.  

That can feel a little frustrating and you might even think you look silly when you know that you can run so much faster. But the thing is not to give in and push your body. It can help to listen to a chilled playlist while you’re out, or one that plays at a certain BPM.  

The point of a recovery run is to recover your body, not to over-exert it. If you plot in a recovery run within a day of completing a hard or long session, you’ll push toxins out of your body and kick start processes needed to repair your muscles.   

Benefits of recovery runs  

Recovery runs can help you improve your running game. If you’re new to them, that can sound pretty counterproductive. How does running slower make you run better?  

Running performance does not only depend on your mileage but also on how well your body can move. The more time you spend pushing your body, the less time it has for recovery. And that can lead to injury and also plateaus in your training from fatigue.  

With a recovery run, you’re allowing your muscles to recover which means they’ll be able to support your skeletal system even better, reducing bone-stress injuries. You’ll also still get all the mental health benefits of being on the move.  

All of this combined will improve your future runs.  

But why run at all? Why not just relax? It’s also about pumping fresh blood around your body to help it recover. If you swapped your recovery run for a day spent in front of the TV, you’d probably feel even more stiff than when you first started because you’re not moving the lactic acid along.  

How to do a recovery run 

Alongside keeping your heart rate under control, maintaining that conversational pace and keeping it to 30 minutes max, there are a few other pointers to boost your recovery with this type of run.  

Firstly, you’ll want to choose a soft surface. The harder the surface, the harder your muscles have to work. For a recovery run you want to do everything you can to treat your body gently.  

You’ll also want to find flat terrain. Hills are hard work. You don’t need us to tell you that. So, choose a route which is simple and won’t have you on an incline. 

Treadmills are a great option for your recovery runs. They have enough give in their surface to rival tarmac and you’re guaranteed to be running on a constantly flat terrain.  

Easy run vs recovery run  

If you’re already knees deep into a training plan, you’ve likely done a few easy runs. And if you’re reading about recovery runs for the first time now, you might be wondering what the difference is between the two.  

In practice, they are largely the same. But the real difference is why you’re doing it. On an easy run, you’re trying to maintain the progress you’ve already made and boosting your performance by increasing your weekly mileage. On a recovery run, you’re boosting your performance by getting the blood flowing around your body.  

The other key difference is length. Keep your recovery runs to no more than 30 minutes. But feel free to go as long as you like on your easy runs.   

Sources: 

https://www.onepeloton.com/blog/recovery-run