WITNEY ROADRUNNERS COMMITTEE

RECOVERY

For those who collapse at the end of a race or training session

You've seen them before; runners bending over after hard speed interval, gasping for breath. You've probably done it yourself. That's because your body knows that the heart has to pump harder when you're standing at full height. Putting your head at the same height or lower forces blood to your brain faster- and makes those blasted spots go away. 

Your body doesn't now everything (my italics) it doesn't know that lying on the grass in the middle of the track between 400m intervals will actually make things harder for you heart. Your tired legs act as a passive pump when you run, helping move the blood towards the heart. So, when you suddenly stop moving your legs, the heart actually loses a powerful pumping ally. In fact the best way to help your body to recover between hard intervals (or at the end of a race, (my words) is to keep moving- something exercise physiologists call "active recovery". 

How long should your active race recovery be between work intervals? That depends on the length and intensity of your work intervals. In general, the higher the intensity the work interval, the higher the ratio of recovery time to work time.

Long repetitions at a comfortably hard pace.

When running mile repetitions at about race pace your rest to work ratio should be about one to one. Example: 3 or 4x 1 mile at 10k pace, jog for about the number of minutes to complete each mile repetition. (If you work harder than 10k pace then the recovery should be longer. Doug)

Shorter repetitions at 5k race pace

Repetitions of 400-800m done at 5k pace or slightly faster require a longer recovery because of the increased intensity. Aim for a rest to work ratio of about two-to-one. Example:  6-8 x 800m at 5k race pace; for active recovery, jog about twice as long as each 800m recovery.

Short but very intense repetitions

When running very short repetitions 200-400m at a pace close to all- out, your rest to work ratio should be about three-to-one. Example: 4x 400m at close to all-out pace; for active recovery, jog for about three times as long as each 400m repetition. 

In all these recoveries distance is not the important measure but time. (See first item about recovery). In the training sessions I try use to distance to represent time as it is perhaps difficult for individuals to note the effort time and then the recovery time needed, hence the speed of the jog recovery needs to be noticeably slow not just an easing off of speed.