Recovery Day

A bit of recovery today. After the race yesterday I felt I had earned a bit of a lighter day today. Actually, it was more than a case of being earned, a recovery day is just a plain good idea.

Part of training in a smart and sustainable way is knowing when to train hard and when not to. Not every session can or should be hard. Some sessions should be up around threshold, some spent working in the Tempo and Steady Zones and some should be spent doing Recovery. Having this variation in training will help maximise the results of the training, while also providing sufficient recovery to make it possible to train consistently long term.

Without building recovery into the program an athlete eventually either loses training quality or gets injured. It isn't possible to push the body hard all the time, also it isn't good for the body and it isn't effective training, even though it may feel so at the time. The body needs time to recover from tough training or racing, the adaptions that occur during recovery are what help drive improvement over time.

Recovery isn't just about having an easy session or a day off. Recovery also depends on the quality of your time off. If you spend the day sitting around, eating bad food and getting no sleep then you probably aren't getting much from your recovery time. If you are spending the time doing some active recovery (easy exercise), getting a massage, stretching, eating well, getting sleep etc, then you are going to be maximising the benefits of the time off and also come back into training feeling rested and ready to get back into some tough training. This is extra important for people training for an Ironman. The volume of an Ironman becomes very hard to sustain if you aren't also focusing on the quality of your recovery. It is a cliche, but the quality of your recovery is just as important as the quality of your intense training.

With that in mind today I had a nice easy paddle, no sort of intensity. I spent no more than 70 minutes paddling because any more and the session starts to become about endurance. I went paddling with some nice cruisy mates so that there was no temptation to let the intensity creep upwards, just nice relaxed tapping along. Normally I would be in the gym on Monday, but none of that today either. I will be back doing strength work soon enough, but not on a recovery day.

With the race going better than expected yesterday I am keen to get on with training. My next race of consequence is not until the end of September and then another at the end of October. I sort of feel I got lucky with the race yesterday, I definitely wasn't as prepared as I wanted to be, and so my plan for the races in September and October is to be prepared as possible. Being prepared means getting in a couple of months of good quality training, logging some consistent miles. However, plenty of time for that starting tomorrow, before I get to that it is time for a bit of recovery.