Recovery for runners

Recovering well is essential for running well, but this is a bit of training that runners get wrong.

Recovery is 50% of your training and yet it’s the bit that runners are typically bad at. If you don’t recover well from your runs, you won’t reap all the benefits of your training and you won’t perform as well next time you head out.

I’m a big advocate of running three times per week (here’s my 3 runs per week marathon plan) and this isn’t just because it works well for my schedule and therefore allows me to be consistent - it also gives me ample recovery. Having plenty of recovery means you can still do big, meaty workouts and runs because you’re giving yourself the time and space to recover from them.

How training works

When we train, we create microscopic damage to our muscles. When we rest and recover well, our body repairs this damage to make the body stronger. This is a normal process of overload and recovery that happens when we train. But if we don’t give our body enough of what it needs in the recovery phase, it can’t respond well and you may then feel fatigued and start picking up niggles.