Recovery Run.... The Truth!

               So..... you just trained hard, or finished a long run. your muscles are tight, your experiencing pain, or maybe you just ran a full or half marathon. where do you go from here? 

Most experts believe that a "recovery run" within 24 hrs of training hard is beneficial to the athlete is many ways. They believe that this run will help increase blood flow to the legs. Diminishing lactic acid build up.

truth being- lactic acid clears away an hour after hard training. 

So what does a "recovery run" really do? 

It is believed and proved to increase fitness levels and endurance. Imagine your toughest workout at the gym, or your hardest run. when you work yourself to complete failure or fatigue you are tricking your body our pushing your body to expands its limits. Much is the same with a recovery run. You are already in a state of fatigue from your most recent run or workout so with a short, slow run you are pushing your body and muscles to expand further. 

Further more our brain helps us build up as well. When we run in a fatigue state our brain alters its muscle building patterns by choosing muscles that aren't as worn out from the previous workout. This may seem difficult at first because these muscle tissues are used normally. BUT by your body trying to use the most efficient muscles to perform the task we build stronger muscles over all. Creating a Faster, Stronger you.

Not too sure how slow or how far to go?

Ideally you should strive for about 20% slower to your average pace of your previous run. So lets say you ran 21km at a pace of 4:44/km. For your recovery you should look at about a 3-5km run at 5:00 - 5:15/km.
Enjoy the run. This is gonna be your time to get back to the reason for running in the first place. To enjoy all that life and nature has to offer. Hit a trail you wouldn't normally go on. Stop a few times stretch it out. Whatever you feel like. Just enjoy yourself.

Run 4 Life!

Sources - http://runnersconnect.net