Recovery

Recovery is a vital part of your training and should not be overlooked. Get it right and it can be one of the easiest ways to improve your race times. Your body will only improve from your hard workouts if you allow it to recover and adapt to the training stresses.

There are 3 main factors that will improve your recovery; nutrition, sleep or rest and active recovery. 

1. Nutrition. After hard training and races you should look to replace the nutrients lost within 30-60 min of finishing. These will be fluid, carbs, protein and electrolytes. Fluid replacement is best done gradually.  One solution that helps with fluids and nutrient replacement is chocolate milk. You also want to concentrate on high GI foods post workout, so it’s the perfect time to indulge in some sweet treats. Just watch that the fat content is low.
2. Sleep and rest. I think you probably all know how important this is for recovery, so make sure you do get enough. It can be very hard to sleep well after a marathon or other big race, but try to catch up on extra sleep on the following nights.
3. Active rest. Recovery runs must be done at an easy pace! If the purpose of your run is recovery, keep the pace below marathon pace. You will get more benefits from this slow pace than from going any faster. Cross-training can also be a good way to recover, if done at an easy pace. Heart rate is the best way to check if you are going too hard. It should be kept less than 60% of max.

Heart rate is also the easiest way to check if you are ready for another hard session. If your resting heart rate is up, then more recovery is required. Other signs that you may be over doing things and heading towards over training are: trouble sleeping, easy runs feeling hard, sore muscles, an increase in minor illnesses and just feeling tired all the time. The solution is to train less not more. If you train more and have been over doing it, your times will just get worse.