Do Sunday long runs after races prevent full benefits of recovery?

I had good success with the race/tempo saturday, long run sunday, especially for marathon training. But the long run had to be easy. i also made sure that monday was a short, easy day since tuesday was speed.

Cover recover wrote:

My question is a general one about recovery. Is it important to get recovery right after a stimulus to get the full benefits of a workout? Or can you have another hard day right after as long as you recover from both of them the next day?

Many programs race on Saturday and do long runs on Sunday, delaying their recovery. Would it be better to go easy on Sunday and recover? Also, is it different for marathoners?

Assuming you have a choice in the matter...iow you're not with a coach telling what to do on a given day...I'd try the long run the day after race followed by a very easy day. Maybe two 20-30 mins runs with some very light strides. As long as you feel recovered by the next day i.e. Tuesday after a Saturday race and Sunday long run, then you should be ok. If you don't feel recovered it might be better to stick an easy day between race and long run. This also depends on the length of the race. Obviously a 10km race may take more out of you than a 5km race.

As long as it’s just college distances, long runs after race day are fine. I always found that a long run the day after the race kind of massages race soreness into general good cumulative fatigue. And is a great training stimulus. It is especially important to get that Sunday long run in the morning so your body doesn’t have the chance for post race soreness to really set in.

Juice Springsteen wrote:

As long as it’s just college distances, long runs after race day are fine. I always found that a long run the day after the race kind of massages race soreness into general good cumulative fatigue. And is a great training stimulus. It is especially important to get that Sunday long run in the morning so your body doesn’t have the chance for post race soreness to really set in.

I agree it's fine, just take it easy and don't push the pace much during the long run.

moanswers wrote:

I had good success with the race/tempo saturday, long run sunday, especially for marathon training. But the long run had to be easy. i also made sure that monday was a short, easy day since tuesday was speed.

I've been doing this since getting back into shape but find I always need to take Monday off. Admittedly I'm still getting back into shape and have been doing all of my long runs over hilly terrain (and usually throwing in a slight surge in the last 5-10 minutes). Now I'm wondering now if a super easy day might actually be slightly better than a day completely off.

crisscrosscountry wrote:

moanswers wrote:

I had good success with the race/tempo saturday, long run sunday, especially for marathon training. But the long run had to be easy. i also made sure that monday was a short, easy day since tuesday was speed.

I've been doing this since getting back into shape but find I always need to take Monday off. Admittedly I'm still getting back into shape and have been doing all of my long runs over hilly terrain (and usually throwing in a slight surge in the last 5-10 minutes). Now I'm wondering now if a super easy day might actually be slightly better than a day completely off.

i've done both. i would do super easy mondays for a few weeks then got to the point where i just needed a day off. it was more due to the fact that i had to run before 5:00 am and sleep became a priority.

it's cumulative fatigue that gets you so you can pull off a lot for several weeks.