Question about recovery time

YeaYeaPueblo

I'm new here, and fairly new to long distance running. Is there a rule of thumb for hours of rest needed between runs? How much rest is needed after a 5-6 mile 5.5 mph run?
Are my runs short and easy enough that rest days are unnecessary?

I currently run every other day and feel like maybe I'm not pushing myself enough, but I'm also concerned with injury prevention (stalled progress sucks).

Background & goals: I'm 30 year old, treadmill runner (it's winter in interior Alaska and I have toddlers), and I'd like to work my way up to much longer distances - without injury! I also need to make the switch to outdoor running after winter breakup.

I'd appreciate any info or tips from you seasoned pros!

MobyCarp

There are a lot of variables that go into how much recovery time you need. Absolute running speed is not as important as how easy the run is on your personal scale of paces. How well conditioned you are has a huge impact on whether 5-6 miles presents a recovery issue.

If you are truly new to distance running, I'd say to honor the rest day every other day. But you say you are running 5-6 miles, which seems a little long for a true newbie. By the time I was running 5-6 miles, I was okay with running 4 days a week. If you do the arithmetic, 4 days a week implies at least one pair of consecutive days.

The best generic advice I can give you is, take baby steps when you increase your running load. When you add a day, cut the mileage per day a little so that the total weekly mileage doesn't go up as much as you former average run. Then hold that weekly mileage constant for 2 or 3 weeks till you're sure your body is tolerating it well. After that, you can work back up to the former average run, again following a pattern of small increases from one week to the next and holding the weekly mileage steady if you feel beat up.

That, and don't always run as fast as you can. If you really want to train to run long distances, most of your miles should be at a very easy pace. There is a time for speed work, but that time is not every running day of the week.

If you want to communicate with other runners, you should start thinking in terms of minutes per mile instead of miles per hour. 5.5 mph is equivalent to 10:54 per mile, but minutes and seconds per mile give you a finer measurement than tenths of a mile per hour. There will be a noticeable difference in running effort for a change in pace of 20 seconds per mile. Maybe you don't notice the difference in the first mile, but if you keep it up for distance you *will* notice the difference.

Expect recovery time to decrease as you become more conditioned. When I was a new runner, a 6 mile run was a big deal. I might need to take the following day off. Fast forward 4 years, and 6 miles is now a short distance for me. If I run it easy, it's about like a rest day. But I didn't get from running 3-4 miles a day, 3 days a week, to running 6 days per week with the shortest run being 6 miles quickly. It was a long, gradual process. And unfortunately, I had to learn how to avoid injury by making some mistakes.

Couch time is no fun for a runner. I hope you can avoid it.

YeaYeaPueblo

Great info! I've run in the past, my farthest distance ever being 8 miles at a 9:30 minute mile.

That progress was stalled by my pregnancies, so I was without practice for a couple of years. I picked up running again around Thanksgiving 2015, and have increased my mileage from 2 miles up to 5 per run since then (6-7 miles being a long run for me). Today was a long day at 7 miles, split over two runs (5 & 2, both at about the 10:55 pace).

Resting every other day has helped keep these runs easy and helped my body adjust to the workload. But I may add one or two extra easy runs per week to see how it goes.

I'll take your advice and add mileage gradually! Thanks for the advice!

dewd2

Everything MobyCarp said times 2.

I will add that you should pay attention to your body. It will tell you when you are over training. If you suddenly find that you are tired in the morning even after a good night's sleep or you generally feel run down during the day, you should take it as a sign and backoff for a couple days.

Good luck. I'd love to get to Alaska one day and run the Mayor's Marathon. Maybe I'll start planning the trip now.

kristinegift

What @MobyCarp said.

It doesn't matter how fast/slow you run, but rather how far/hard your run was relative to your ability. If 5-6 miles is a long run for you, take a day off the next day. You could probably do 4 days of running per week and be a-OK. Really, rest is determined by how you feel. I know I need two rest days per week or else I'm exhausted and injury-prone, so I take them. You'll be able to feel those needs out for yourself and figure out what type of schedule works best for you to avoid injury, just might require a little experimentation and discomfort (but not much!!)

SKME2013

Everybody is different so there is no iron rule. Listen to your body! It also depends on how much of running you have under your belt.

I only started two years ago and at the beginning I ran about 3-4 times per week, roughly 5-8km. Now I am running a minimum of 10 km pretty much daily with a rest day every 10 days or so. It worked for me and I have successfully completed quite a few halfs and marathons. I also cross train with an elliptical or a bike and I do regularly weight training.

If in doubt and you are tired - listen to your body and have a rest day!
Stef.