Training Query - Recovery Runs

claralara

Just a quick one re recovery runs – according to McMillan my recovery pace should be 10.28 – 10.58, a pace which I would usually struggle to keep at on a 3 / 4 mile run if I didn’t have the Garmin to keep tabs on and actively hold back. Yesterday however, I did 4miles at 10.52, which was completely dictated by my body. I’m on week 3 of P&D up to 55 mpw 18 week plan which is a fairly tough plan for a novice like myself, so obviously I’m going to be more tired and heavy-legged than I’ve known before. And this was my 5th day in a row. After about 2 miles I felt better, like the blood was flowing in my legs and they were loosening up but the pace stayed sloooowww.

I just wanted to know whether recovery pace should be dictated by body (not being able to exert much more) or mind (actively choosing to go slowly)? I’m hoping the answer is body and I’m not going to be told that I’m not able for what I’ve taken on. I’ve a rest day today and feel good.

Woddle

Is mcmillans recovery pace based on predicted marathon time or a recent race?

JosDel

I dont worry to much about pace or mileage in recovery runs, I just go out for a 40 minute easy run...

Gringo78

I do my long runs in the evening and I try to do my recovery run the next morning and I usually feel fairly tired and sluggish but I find it helps for the rest of the day then to have got the blood and metabolism going early in the day.

If you are finding it very tough, then maybe a walk instead might be better? I think 55 mpw at those paces is a very demanding schedule.

ronnie085

I don't worry about pace at all during recovery runs, just go by what my body tells me. I normally just run with HR screen on the garmin and keep it below 70% max and worry about what pace was running when i get home, at times ends up really really slow but speed is not the aim of these runs.

Brianderunner

2 mins 30 secs to 3 mins per mile slower than your 5 mile/10k race pace is a good guide.

claralara

Woddle wrote: »

Is mcmillans recovery pace based on predicted marathon time or a recent race?

Well I considered the following:
10 mile race in March - 89.16 - Recovery pace: 11.03 - 11.33
5k race in May - 24.18 - Recovery Pace: 10.33 - 11.03

And if I were to attempt 4hours in DCM - Recovery Pace: 10.40 - 11.10

So basically somewhere between 10.30 and 11.30 I think...

Gringo78 wrote: »

I do my long runs in the evening and I try to do my recovery run the next morning and I usually feel fairly tired and sluggish but I find it helps for the rest of the day then to have got the blood and metabolism going early in the day.

If you are finding it very tough, then maybe a walk instead might be better? I think 55 mpw at those paces is a very demanding schedule.

Yes, this run was at 7am having done 10 miles at 9.36 after work the night before. The legs did feel good throughout the day yesterday though - sometimes it would be a bit of a struggle to get up a flight or two of stairs after a 10 mile run for me!

claralara

Brianderunner wrote: »

2 mins 30 secs to 3 mins per mile slower than your 5 mile/10k race pace is a good guide.

Yeah that sounds about right and doable - I'm just wondering whether at that pace it should feel ridiculously easy or is it ok to feel a bit sluggish and heavy?

macinalli

claralara wrote: »

After about 2 miles I felt better, like the blood was flowing in my legs and they were loosening up but the pace stayed sloooowww.

I think that's exactly how it should feel. The reason you're doing this run is to flush the lactic acid from your legs after a tough session yesterday and from my experience it usually takes about 2 miles to kick in. You're also right to keep the pace slow (intentional or not) - sometimes we start to feel great a couple of miles into these runs and the temptation is to pick up the pace. Don't!

RayCun

I usually do a recovery run after a hard run the evening before, and often feel like I'm hobbling along. Not keeping my pace down deliberately, just barely able to run.

Brianderunner

claralara wrote: »

Yeah that sounds about right and doable - I'm just wondering whether at that pace it should feel ridiculously easy or is it ok to feel a bit sluggish and heavy?

The first mile or 2 you will feel rotten, assuming you've done a tough session (pmp run or tempo) the night before, but after the 2nd mile i feel much better and it should start to feel easy at that pace. If i go past 4 or 5 mls on these usually my legs are telling me to stop and i usually do otherwise i would be defeating the purpose of the run.

menoscemo

claralara wrote: »

Yeah that sounds about right and doable - I'm just wondering whether at that pace it should feel ridiculously easy or is it ok to feel a bit sluggish and heavy?

I love recoveries. Normally they feel ridiculously easy, but If I have had a hard run the night before the legs will feel sluggish (though the heart and lungs won't be working hard). This is the whole point of recovery runs though, to freshen up the legs. Running hard on tired or heavy legs could lead to injury.

Ref pace: I would have used to run recovery runs too fast for my abilities. It is only when I started wearing a Heart rate monitor that I realised I was running them too fast. After a while of trying to keep recovery runs below 75% man HR (at first i really had to force myself to slow down) it now comes naturally. So getting a HRM can be a good starting point.
As Brian says 2.5-3/ mile mins below 10k pace seems to be about right, you could also try about 1.5-2 mins/ mile slower than PMP.

belcarra

I've been using a HRM the past couple of months and use it to base my running zones. For recovery I was initially aiming at <140bpm but have since fine tuned it to approx 135bpm +/- a couple of beats.

I find this is better than sticking to a certain pace as you can allow for hills using bpm but it can be easy to try and match your steady, flat pace going uphill which will lead to an increased effort.

ecoli

For recovery runs myself I am to run as slow as I feel i can possibly go. I just checked mcmillan (normally dont use it) and has my recovery at 7.47-8.17 per mile yet my recovery runs normally run anything from 8.10-9.30 per mile. Run by feel usually dont look at the watch till after and make sure it feels uncomfortably slow.
You have said yourself that you have taken on a fairly demanding schedule so try not to worry about hitting certain paces for easy runs rather try and base them on percieved effort

claralara

Cheers for the replies guys. I think I'm happy with how I should be doing and feeling through these recoveries now. As I said, I was just concerned that if I was sluggish, I was doing too much. But I understand it all a bit better now.