I raced a half marathon on Saturday and am trying to figure out how many days I should run easy before doing some speed work again. Is there a rule you all go by or do you just take it by how your body feels each day?
I raced a half marathon on Saturday and am trying to figure out how many days I should run easy before doing some speed work again. Is there a rule you all go by or do you just take it by how your body feels each day?
Speed work is a loaded term. I would say that it should be all easy running the week after a half. 1.5 weeks later do a light threshold/tempo session. 2.5 weeks later you're ready to work in some faster stuff.
You shouldn't be hammering short reps right after a half.
Citius Mag filmed Ches do 10 x 1k just a few days after the NYC Half Marathon. Ches is an elite runner & I would still say that that's aggressive. But he wasn't doing 10 x 1k @ 10k goal pace. He was doing a threshold session. Seems like overkill after a race but he's a pro & has to race a lot for income.
Go easy 4, 5 days. Get back at it slowly, be at regular schedule or whatever at 8 days.
Normal people can't race the next weekend after a half. Most can't after a 10K.
I did speed work 6 days later, and strained my hamstring.
The last half marathon I raced, the first thing I did that was hard, was a 20 mile long run 6 days later. But that run, an everything leading up to it was at easy pace. 9 days after the half, was my first workout of 12 x 400m.
If you raced the half real hard, that should be an intense enough "workout" to last most non-elites for a good seven days, I'd think. But then again, I'm 48, so I don't recover as fast as I did when I was 24.