Is recovery time overrated?

A friend of mine Steve Spada posted a recap of his King Tiger 5k race yesterday. In his post he described his race and his training days leading up to race. Incidentally this was Steve's fastest race this year. But what stood out the most to me were not the hard efforts that he put in but the rest days that he took. And he took not one but two days and his body rewarded him with the strength to score a fast time.

I know personally I am all to guilty of training too hard and training through races only to be left wondering exactly why I cannot get my times down. I remember there was a time when I only ran 6 miles and 4 miles in the days leading up to a race. These days, I am lucky if I am not running a long run 2 days out and running at least 7 miles the day before.

Somehow this mindset has worked itself into my training plan that I need to train hard every day and that every day needs a purpose.

To answer the question in the title of this post, recovery time is not overrated and when given the proper rest, the body can do wondrous things. Steve's run last week was a great example and his example is we should remember to follow.

 

Thoughts from the Cool Down Runner