Recovery run question

All elite runners do those recovery runs, and those runs constitute the majority of their miles, so I believe there is some benefit of it. The claim is that those so called "junk miles" runs are meant to build up muscles in order to increase mileage and to get to enough mileage in order to be able to run long distance such as 10k, half marathons and marathons. Since you can't get enough mileage only from quality hard workouts. You never run at race pace for the same distance as the race and usually not even to half the distance. Elite marathon runners very rarely would run a half marathon at marathon race pace as a workout, (sometime they do it once a month or so before the marathon). So if you only do quality workouts without those long slow easy runs, and then go to a marathon or a half marathon, you are at greater risk of injury and also you might suffer from a sharp downfall of the pace during the second half of the distance since your muscles aren't used to such long effort. As some coach said: you must run long and you must run fast, and sometimes you have to run long and fast together. It's kinda like the race would be an average pace between your long slow runs and your short fast runs.

Since running easy and relaxed, other benefits of easy running could be technique improvment and all kinds of experiments on your running form.

Many amature runners run these easy runs to fast and therefore hurt their recovery and don't get fresh to the quality workouts fresh. So run em slow enough so you do recover.

The shorter the distance you race, the less you need those long easy runs. About blood flow to muscle etc, I don't think it's proven that light intensity workouts make recovery faster than complete rest. Off the record, in my opinion in years to come we would see elites decreasing mileage.

Furthermore, if you're training for a marathon, you don't have enough mileage there, and you should lenghten your easy runs.

Thanks for the input. The week that I have shown is in the beginning of the mileage build up, and all the runs get longer progressively, tapping out at about 55 mpw before the taper. But yes, this is not a high mileage program. With a job and baby and my past running history, this is about what I can muster right now.

I've always felt that the slower, conspicuously easier runs that I do 3-4 days a week serve two or maybe three functions. One is to keep overall mileage higher than it would be without them. Secondly is to make sure that that overall mileage isn't all harder/brisker stuff; in the course of a long buildup and season, moderation is good. It can't all be hammering. That slowly drifts towards strain, incipient breakdown, and overtraining. Thirdly--and this is a subjective sense of my own--those recovery runs get the blood circulating, unkink muscles and joints that may have ended up somewhat microtraumatized during the previous day's harder workout. And that's a good thing. The recovery jog tends to smooth things out: it makes the bed, as it were, after the workout has messed it up.

If you're careful to run a 15-30 minute recovery jog AFTER the hard workout, you can probably get away without the recovery jog the next day. But if you tend to skimp on the post-workout warmdown, the next-day jog is particularly important, IMHO.

I should add that the Higdon plan you're following would not work for me and strikes me as ill-conceived. I don't get the two-hard-runs on the weekend thing. I would do it like this.

M: 3-5 easy

T: 3 easy, 4 hill repeats, 2 easy

W: 3 easy, 4 miles marathon pace, 2 easy

Th: 3-5 easy

F: 3 easy, 3 tempo/threshold

S: 3 easy

Su: 13 mile long run: first half easy, second half pushing smoothly towards marathon pace.

F should be: 3 easy, 3 tempo/threshold (90 % HR), 2 easy

While I don't disagree with any of the previous posts, I'm not sure hat thwyanswer the exact question that you asked.

Runs at easy distance pace result in several physiological adaptations. There is the general strengthening of muscle and connective tissue that will reduce the likelihood of injury as alluded to in other posts. But there are also adaptations that take place with respect to your cardiovascular system, primarily being the increased number and size of mitochondria in your leg muscle fibers that result from easy distance running. The increased number of mitochondria means an increased ability to burn oxygen and glucose to produce energy - basically, you are increasing your aerobic ability. Similarly, you increase the number of capillaries in your muscle fibers with easy distance running there are other adaptations as well, all in line with the forgoing.

So as a general matter, the 3 milers aren't great in and of themselves, but they are having some effect and they are laying the base for future 6 to 8 milers which will have a bigger effect over time.

I agree with you-I am a bit confused as to why the M pace run and the distance run are back to back. I will see how this week goes and then mix it up as needed. The one I am using is from his advanced 1 program. The intermediate and beginner programs separate these two workouts and actually don't even have tempo or interval training and replace one of the easy 'recovery' runs with cross training. His advanced 2 program has an interval and tempo run per week, plus the long run, second longest run, and Marathon pace run. Since I have never done a marathon and am getting used to the mileage (I have never run more than 16 miles yet in my life), I figured one day/week of speed work was plenty for now. I will tweak the schedule as I go as well as the marathon pace run pace. From another post, I got the good advice that the marathon pace run should be based on current fitness, not target pace necessarily, but by definition those should converge as I get closer to the race itself.

Thanks Smoove-that's exactly what I was looking for! I thought I had read something to that effect, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

I have this flash back from high school cross country-'SLOOOOOOW Amigoooo!' That was our cross country coach/spanish teacher warning us to slow down on our slow runs the day before a big meet. Somehow we always tried to turn those runs into races. Or, we would end up swimming in a river or climbing some cliff in the gorge, trying by all means to get hurt!

For what it's worth, I found that 85% my my max heart rate corresponded with marathon pace. Until my mid-50s, I also found that that pace was just about the fasted pace I could sustain with a 3/3 breathing rate. A tick or two faster and I'd need to switch to 3/2. I believe that some physiologists would call that the ventilatory threshold, although I could be wrong about that:

http://running.competitor.com/2013/10/training/whats-the-ventilatory-threshold-and-why-does-it-matter_18338

The point is, marathon pace is a full-on aerobic pace, but one in which you're not yet accumulating a measurable drip-drip of lactate--a situation in which you'd slowly feel some tightness come on. Learning how to float right in that notch, without pushing harder, is an acquired skill. To me, it's THE skill needed for good marathon running. I naturally want to push faster than that. Some training guides talk about a long run pace, or "slow tempo" pace, that is defined as "marathon to half-marathon pace." And THAT pace is, of course, just above the level I'm talking about. As you push from marathon pace towards half marathon pace, you're pushing from 85% to 88-89%. Learning the different feel, the different stress level, of those two paces is crucial.

Since the longest races I train for these days are half marathons, my long runs all tend to involve an easy run out--to the 7-mile point, for example--followed by 3 or 4 miles at 85% and then a long slow push towards the finish line, often ending at 90% or above. That's good HM training, but it's not where a marathoner needs to notch his pace. You need to learn that hi-aerobic float, with comfortable breathing. You need to learn how to ease the throttle back just a hair and sink back down into the comfort zone.

Smoove wrote:

While I don't disagree with any of the previous posts,

Or in other words, I'm the smartest on this planet. Now listen to me.

Why so salty?