Which is better; Run recovery days at whatever pace your body needs or at a pre determined pace no matter what?

Didn't read the other responses but the correct answer is whatever your body needs.

I like the idea of "responsive training". If you need to run slowly, or else your volume is going to go to crap when you don't want it to , run slowly. If you are feeling good enjoy your run/reps a bit more to the extent it won't hurt your next workouts. Keep your workouts repeatable, aimed towards progress that your plan has in it, but have some flexibility to go easier or harder with a dose of common sense.

Dufustherealone wrote:

I like the idea of "responsive training". If you need to run slowly, or else your volume is going to go to crap when you don't want it to , run slowly. If you are feeling good enjoy your run/reps a bit more to the extent it won't hurt your next workouts. Keep your workouts repeatable, aimed towards progress that your plan has in it, but have some flexibility to go easier or harder with a dose of common sense.

This^

aehd wrote:

Dufustherealone wrote:

I like the idea of "responsive training". If you need to run slowly, or else your volume is going to go to crap when you don't want it to , run slowly. If you are feeling good enjoy your run/reps a bit more to the extent it won't hurt your next workouts. Keep your workouts repeatable, aimed towards progress that your plan has in it, but have some flexibility to go easier or harder with a dose of common sense.

This^

I agree. This is a great response.

I'm high right now wrote:

So watcha think?

Not this again. This is why Americans suck.

Easy is easy. Period. There is no such thing as too

Easy. The goal is to recover, work the slow twitch fibers, and steady the heart. Africans understand that. Americans, Japanese and the British do not!

" Running with Ndereba on an easy session you will find the pace does not creep any faster than 7 minute per mile--slow considering her 5:17 per-mile PR marathon pace. Catherine is easily able to run a hard session one day and the next morning come out and burn a 10-miler at 6-minute pace. But she does not, and therein lies a Kenyan secret to success. It's no different for most Kenyan men. Isaac Songok and Augustine Choge, for example, rarely break 8-minute pace on their easy runs.

For Ndereba, the long run, the meat of the program, is run at a slow clip. "Easy speed up to 22 to 23 miles maximum," she says. Five weeks prior to Osaka, she ran 7:30 pace for 23 miles. Tegla Loroupe ran under a similar program. "

" All Kenyan women, and Ndereba is a champion at this, adhere to the notion of running easy on the easy days. "On easy days, if you start pushing then the next day you cannot give 100 percent," says Olympian and 2:27 athlete Alice Chelangat. "And nowadays if you speed and it is not 100 percent, then you better say goodbye to have any chances to win races."

Scorpion_runner wrote:

" All Kenyan women, and Ndereba is a champion at this, adhere to the notion of running easy on the easy days. "On easy days, if you start pushing then the next day you cannot give 100 percent," says Olympian and 2:27 athlete Alice Chelangat. "And nowadays if you speed and it is not 100 percent, then you better say goodbye to have any chances to win races."

That's all fine and good, but running way too slow is bad mechanically, especially for HS runners.

Also, long runs should be just a bit slower than Aerobic Threshold.

If the Kenyans learned from Farah and ran faster on their easy days, perhaps they would start beating him.

Before he got on the Salazar sauce plan, he was getting his arse handed to him by kenyans left and right.

so there is that.

LOL

Ethiopian and kenyan school kids easy run to school and back home everyday for transportation ( 6 miles to school 6 miles back home).

no wonder why most american runners are toast by the age of 28, or never turn into great pros.

hard running throughout high school and college for no damn reason.

To answer the OP question, what ever pace your body needs is the answer.

I'm with Cooptastic, In high school running between 45-55 miles per week I ran between 6:30 to 7:00 for recovery runs. College I ran 65-80 per week and would do about 7:15-7:45 pace for recovery.

I always felt beat up if I would run slower than 8:00 pace on my recoveries. I'd develop aches and pains from the recoveries if to slow.

This guy ran just a bit faster than your 4:12 and he did a fair amount of 7 minute mile paced runs (5 miles in 35 minutes):

http://www.sweatelite.co/steve-ovett-training-program/

He also ran 120 mile weeks. Hard to do that on 35-minute 5 milers, unless you're doubling. I believe I mentioned earlier that doubles should be run at an easier pace.

Any reason you chose to highlight to smallest percentage of his week's mileage, while ignoring his six 10 mile runs at 52-58 minutes?

Just pointing out that running really easy can be a part of an elite's program. T

Not ignoring this guy's 1000m, 2000m, and 3000m repeats at faster than marathon pace, but he also did a bunch of 12k runs in 60 minutes, or about 8 minute mile pace. He broke 2:07 for the marathon:

http://www.bunnhill.com/BobHodge/TrainingLogs/inubushi.htm

Better to have a max pre-determined pace and run up to but not faster than that.

Run how you feel on recovery days, they are RECOVERY days. If you run too fast you don't recover.

During my time in Boulder I saw and passed many Kenyan stars running slower than 8:00 pace on some days. The same guys were running 4:45 on other days, they were not too insecure to take it EASY when needed.