Determin how good an athlete is by recovery?

The only advice you should be asking Kevin for is how to recruit foriegners!

C'mon please try and keep this post clean of crap, it's a serious question that needs a serious awnser. Thanks.

There are three things that determine who can become a "great" runner (in no particular order):

1) Natural talent

2) Hard work

3) Recovery ability

If you lack any one of these, you are limited to being a

"good" runner. Talent is obvious, and hard work includes all mental aspects of training, dedication, and racing. Recovery is on this list because the best athletes have the ability to recover very quickly from hard efforts and hit it again, sometimes the next day.

I don't think recovery is as hard-wired as talent. I used to take longer to recover, but when my weekly mileage climbed from 30 to 80+ I got much quicker at recovering. The body adapts! So I don't think you can tell who is going to be great by recovery ability, but it is a good asset to have.

Recovery can depend a great deal on training too. If you are working too hard in between hard efforts or doing higher mileage than you can handle, it will slow your recovery. Notice how a lot of milers who do crazy-intense workouts cut their miles DRASTICALLY as the hardest part of the season's training begins.

There maybe a slight correlation between recovery time and the level of runner you are and the level of runner you are capable of becoming but it is not significant enough to worry yourself about. The most important thing is that you continue to improve, that is a better measurment. You may find that you are not at the same level as those you are training with therefore working harder, over-exerting yourself and takinglonger to recover.

I think it was Kenny Moore, while at Oregon, who was in a similar situation. I think the remedy was doing one very long run (well over 20 miles) and one harder day during the week, and the rest of the training was done with an emphasis on recovery. This is discussed in Bill Dillingers book about track training, so when I go home Ill try and get the details. I think it was to the effect that some people can do multiple hard days in a row, but a guy like Moore would need 2+ days to recover from a harder day. I hope this helps.

Some people believe that they can help speed their recovery in a variety of ways. Training wise, obviously two-a-days and higher mileage should evetually help to speed recovery. El G believes that his extensive weight-lifting/ strength-training program allows him to recover very quickly and run at a high intensity everyday. Also, there are many that believe drinks such as Endurox or Accelerade speed recovery. I simply drink a Gatorade after every run. Some also believe that Slim Fast is a good substitute. Finally, ICE BATHS... I swear by them. However, to keep from being stiff the next day, get in a warm shower and stretch after your ice bath. Hope I helped...

Well said Cragg Advocate, strength training is often misunderstood and under appreciated with regard to it's effect on recovery. I know weights and strength training are very big in europe along with hill training at improving recovery time. There was once an article on Peak Performance Online about how down hill can help aid in recovery with the slight stress caused releasing many chemicals that help the body recover. I've kind of drifted from the original post but to add, I think it would be foolish attempting to determin your potential based on soley recovery time. There are so many factors contributing both to the time you take to recover from workouts and races and to what makes a good athlete.

Ask the michigan boys they seem to know a bit about recovery. I wouldn't bother with Warhurst though.

One of my old coaches suggested once in a discussion of weight lifting to supplement running that by adding some extra muscle mass it would help to dissipate lactic acid from hard workouts.

To aid in my recovery from harder sessions I add a 3 or 4 mile run in the evening at a veryv relaxed pace. Even during the run i feel my legs getting fresher. I also make sure to eat and drink a soon as possible after all runs in order to get the nutrients and other things that your muscles need to be recovered for your next hard session.

Hope some of that helps.

Just looking at El G, I find it hard to believe that he even lifts weights. That dude is a stick.

What type and how often does EL G lift weights?

Doesn't a warm shower negate the benefits of an ice bath.

I think that the idea behind an ice bath is that once the muscle warms up, a flood of new blood and rich nutrients head to that area, thus making recovery easier. I could be wrong on this, so someone else might want to add.

I actually feel better the day after an intense workout. Dunno know why, I just do. So, I do two hard workouts then two easy ones. Sometimes, but not very often, I need 3 easy workouts. My schedule is usually like this:

Hard

Hard

Easy

Easy

Moderate

Hard

Hard

IF you are having great amount of difficulty recovering from hard workouts, and you are relatively and experienced runner, you should investigate if:

a.) you are training way too hard

b.) what you are eating and how you are sleeping to recover

c.) if you have something else going on like anemia

The cold of the ice bath squeezes the lactic acid out of your muscles into your blood stream and then gets rid of it if I'm correct. Then the warm shower gets your muscles loose again and keeps you from being stiff for your next run. If you stretch again during or after the shower then the warm shower allows you to get that last bit of lactic acid ou by stretching. I'm not a big scientific guy, but that is just what works for me and others. All the Physios can come tell me I'm dead wrong, but I feel better that way and I belive in it so...

puppy nose, its weird, i get the same thing. after a very intense workout or race, my legs tend to feel better. even after two easy days in a row, my legs feel tight and i cant really seem to get going. for example at the state meet, my legs felt great the day after trials but not so good the day of trials. but who knows, that could just be training. but i have experienced that doubles help recovery tremendously

Two reasons why you feel better the day after a harder run. First, your blood volume may rise, thereby improving your VO2 max temporarily because cardiac output increases as a result. Second, your neural coordination improves, thereby inproving running economy. It is not uncommon to reduce 02 cost, heart rate level, and RPE after a harder, but not extreme day, for a 24-36 hours.

One thing is you might be anemic (low in iron), otherwise ...

Try a shot of wheatgrass juice from your local smoothie shop every couple of days (and vitamin C chewables help stimulate the adrenal glands). A 1 oz. shot contains as much/many anti-oxidants as 2 lbs. of raw vegetables (chase it with water, it's a bit strong). Wheatgrass properties include anti-cancer, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, cleans the intestinal tract, etc...wonderful stuff. Your lack of recovery might be a nutritional issue, still, don't rely on supplemting bottled vitamins, minerals, amino acid products to get you through.

frustrated you have to be more specific. What is your age, miledge, and goals would help. More likely than not this is a passing phase.?@This sports takes years of hard training to get there if your are lucky. Chill out and enjoy yourself. Relish in the suffering. Oh yeah even Bekele says train hard and pray that sums it up cuz you never know. You are literally a stress fracture away from limbo so put things in perspective.