Recovery.
This entry was posted on 9/12/2011 5:21 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
Today was a recovery day in two parts. This is the best way, in my opinion, to go about active recovery. I started the day with a very easy 5 before school @ 40 minutes. Before the sun came up above the trees it was nice and cool, though very humid. Then, I did another easy 5 when I got home.
The reason I like to do this is because it helps to maximize your bodies natural repair mechanisms. Every time you run, you do a small amount of damage to your muscles. The simple act of doing this damage triggers your body to repair itself. Under normal conditions, your body can repair the damage that is done. But when you run harder, like in a race, or longer, like I did yesterday, the damage may outpace the body's ability to repair itself. A few hours after a race or a long run, the body likes to go back to "normal." So the repair process may stop before it's complete. So by going for a very easy run, you can trick your body into finishing up where it left off. The body only sees that there is damage, it doesn't know that it was left-over from yesterday, or the day before. And when you run easy twice in one day, you can really spread the repair time out. So simply put, by tomorrow, I should be feeling 100%
