Race Results Race Calendar Race Registration Featured Races

• 1: Home
• 2: News
  • 2.1: Regional News
  • 2.3: National Running News
• 3: Resources
  • 3.1: Online Race Registration
  • 3.2: Regional Running Clubs
  • 3.3: Additional Club Resources
  • 3.4: Running Shoe Stores
  • 3.5: ChronoTrack
  • 3.6: ChampionChip
• 4: Training
  • 4.1: Online Training
  • 4.2: Training & Racing
  • 4.3: Nutrition
  • 4.4: New and Beginning Runners
• 5: Runner Rankings
  • 5.1: 2010
  • 5.2: 2009
  • 5.3: 2008
  • 5.4: 2007
  • 5.5: 2006
  • 5.6: 2005
  • 5.7: 2004
  • 5.8: 2003
  • 5.9: 2002
  • 5.10: 2001
  • 5.11: 2000
• 6: Community
  • 6.1: Regional Features
  • 6.2: Photo Gallery
  • 6.3: Women Running
  • 6.4: Marketplace
  • 6.5: Message Board
• 7: eNewsletter
• 8: Event Directors
  • 8.1: Capital Running Company
  • 8.2: Submit Event
• 9: Magazine
  • 9.1: Subscribe
  • 9.2: Get a Copy
  • 9.3: Advertise

Ask the Coach: Recovery is the Cornerstone

By Coach Kirt West
May/June 2009
For the Washington Running Report

(Editor's Note:  After a two year break, Coach Kirt West's column is returning as a regular feature in the Washington Running Report.)

Recovery is the cornerstone of a successful training program regardless of how fast you run or how old you are. The difference is in the kind of recovery one needs based on their age and training. The following are some general principles that have been found to work for runners at all levels.

1)       Never go hard on back-to-back days. Any time you run at 75% of maximum heart rate or greater (using the Karvonen formula), you are breaking down the muscles in your body. It takes approximately 36 to 48 hours for your body to repair the damage. It is this repair process that helps you get faster and stronger. If you do not allow adequate recovery, over time you will start breaking down or getting stale. Not only have I observed this from runners who have come to me for help, I learned it the hard way myself in the early 1990s where I always trying to run faster than the day before. After crashing and burning in several races, I was introduced to heart rate monitor training and the concept of effort-based training. Once I learned to slow down and have easy days following hard days or long runs, I finally started running PRs even though I was a masters runner by that time. All of my PRs came at age 46 and 47. I sometimes lament that I could have had some great PRs in my 20s and 30s if I had only known about effort-based training.

2)      Easy recovery days means running at a conversational pace. The same holds true for your long runs except when you plan your long run as a specific workout, e.g., running some predicted marathon pace miles during the middle or end of the long run. The talk test should be applied-if you cannot easily speak, you are going too fast.

3)      An easy recovery day can also be a day off. Most runners should take at least one day off per week. My experience is that only those high mileage folks averaging 50 miles or more per week can handle seven days per week of running and even most of them could benefit from a day off. Even in the days when I was running 60+ miles, I found a benefit to a day off even if I had to double up on other days. My body would say "THANK YOU" when I returned after a day off.

4)      Masters runners need more days off. I am now 61 years old and have found that I am better off running three to four days a week and simply running longer on the days that I run. After I turned 50, I found that I needed two days a week off and now I need more. I sometimes forget my own rules and if I run three days in a row, I I pay the penalty for the indiscretion.

5)      Cross training can be used on a recovery day as long as the effort is reasonable. Getting on a bicycle can be a nice change and help work different muscles. While that will not necessarily result in faster times, it will help ensure that your body is recharged and recovered. The enforced rest by itself may lead to faster race times.

6)      Some of the tools runners can employ to ensure they do recovery runs include wearing a heart monitor, not wearing a watch, running a shorter distance, and running with someone who is slower than you (and letting them set the pace).

Questions Welcomed

One of the purposes of this column is to help answer your questions about running. My goal as a coach is to educate runners, help them stay injury free, and provide information that will let runners maximize their potential. I will respond to questions sent to me at kirtwest@comcast.net.

Kirt West has been running for 35+ years and coaching for more than 15 years. He is a former member of the RRCA Coach Committee and helped to establish the RRCA Coaching Certification program. He is the Coach for the Bill Rodgers Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Virtual Training Program. He also helped to establish the first formal coaching program for the Montgomery County Road Runners Club and has been a staff coach at Roy Benson's Nike Summer Running Camps.

---