Friday, March 27, 2009

Recovery Day

Yesterday was a recovery day. I put in a four mile recovery run. I was seriously considering bagging it, but I did it anyways. It seems that just to get out and put in four miles and not letting my heart rate go over 75% of max is not a very exciting way to spend an afternoon. At that heart rate I am barely moving along at times. So, when I got back, I went to the books ("Advanced Marathoning" by Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas) to remember why I'm doing these short, seemingly junk runs:




So there you have it. I guess they are important after all!

Speaking of books, I've given up on the Glover book ("Competitive Runner's Handbook"). It's not the book itself, it's me. Well, maybe it is the book. The problem is I've read this all before in various other books with better descriptions of why these things are important. My impression of the Glover book is he tells you what you need to do, but doesn't do a very good job of explaining why. Kind of like being lectured. When it comes right down to it, "Advanced Marathoning" gets my vote for the best running book out there - even if you aren't going to run a marathon. Pfitzinger and Douglass go into a lot of detail to explain why things are important, providing tools that us runners can use to make decisions when we are playing around with our training plans.

Today is Friday, which means rest day (seems like I've done a lot of that this week). It also means it's Foto Friday over at Adventure Seeker's blog. Since spring is under way (although some would disagree), I though I would leave you with skiing in Southern California as a reminder of all that snow you Easterners had this year. Talk to you Sunday!

Posted by Glenn Jones at 5:11 AM
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5 comments:

  1. Ms. V.March 27, 2009 at 11:29 AM

    GORGEOUS PICTURE!!! Is that Big Bear?

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  2. Rookie on the RunMarch 27, 2009 at 2:28 PM

    OK... NOW I know what recovery runs are all about. Nice to know there is a purpose behind them! Good thing they're good for the body because I feel like almost all of my runs are recovery runs! ha ha

    Beautiful picture!

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  3. AnneMarch 28, 2009 at 5:27 AM

    Thanks for the great reminder of why recovery runs are important, and why they shouldn't be run like all the others. I wouldn't call them junk miles, though. I've always been told junk miles are those you tag on to a training schedule just to get to a certain number for the week or day without any thought to their quality. Recovery runs may feel a little like junk miles, but from what you've pulled out of the book, they actually help get rid of the junk in our muscles. Hallelujah!

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  4. LindsayMarch 28, 2009 at 7:15 AM

    it's hard to stick with those recovery runs some day, but they are beneficial. hopefully you'll be more in the mood of "sweet, an easy recovery day" for those days though. my problem is that i then want to make everyday an easy day... :)

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  5. YasminMarch 30, 2009 at 9:51 AM

    I, too, dislike recovery runs, but I try to do them in a pretty area so I focus on the scenery. I'm also thinking of doing them to audio books because I know I'm slower when I listen to the books.

    Thanks for the Advanced Marathoning suggestion. I'm going to pick that one up.

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