In a previous blog I explored the topic of how hard, or at what pace, a recovery run should be. Here we’ll delve into how long your recovery runs should be.

 

Recovery run recap

I prefer the term easy run rather than recovery run. Whilst there’s some sense in the “recovery” part, this only really happens after the run which people who haven’t looked into physiology may not fully appreciate. 

These runs should be run at an easy effort, whether you decide to gauge this on pace, heart rate or rate of perceived exertion (RPE) using one of the popular measures such as the Borg CR10 scale. All of these have issues, hence the blog I previously wrote on the topic, but let’s get to the point of this blog.

 

How long should your recovery run be?

Unfortunately this is like virtually every topic I discuss, in that there isn’t a definitive answer, although I will place a general ceiling on recovery/easy runs to give you an upper limit.

First consider your goal. Marathon training requires lots of miles, but that weekly mileage figure will vary enormously based on your fitness and goals. If you’re aiming to run something between 3:30:00 and 4:00:00 over the marathon distance, you’d probably be running around 35 miles in the latter weeks of training. If 16-20 miles of that is a long run, and 6-8 miles is an interval or tempo style run, you’ve got around 7-13 miles of easy running you can do. The exact split might well be very different, but let’s go with this example for now. You’ll want to split these 7-13 miles over 2-3 runs, and probably fairly evenly meaning each would be 3-4 miles long. 

3-4 miles for a recovery/easy run is generally a pretty sensible target for most people. It means a duration of 25-40 minutes at most which won’t overload the body, meaning over the coming hours your body can repair the very small amount of good damage done by that run, as well as recovering from the previous day or couple of days of training, prior to your next harder running session. This is precisely what we’re looking to do.

 

It’s not all about the miles

Whilst we generally plan our training in miles, and recovery runs will need to fit that too, it’s worth considering a ceiling of time since a runner looking to run a 5:00:00 plus marathon time would be working significantly harder or longer to fit 3-4 miles in, making this no longer a recovery run.

Equally, 3-4 miles would take less time for someone looking to run 3:00:00 or faster, so they could be missing out on some fitness improvement by sticking with 3-4 miles. Since dipping under 2:45:00, I’ve increased my easy runs to 5-6 miles, running these in around 35-43 minutes at 60-75 seconds per mile slower than marathon pace.

Generally speaking I’ve found that 45 minutes of running is a good cut-off point, both from a physical standpoint and mental/boredom perspective. Often people get bored in marathon training or mentally fatigued by the commitment it needs, so more miles won’t always be in their best interest long term.

 

Caveats and considerations

If you’re not marathon training, then the duration and frequency of easy runs can be reduced since there’s less need for higher weekly mileage. 

Your own recovery rates should be factored in. This comes down to how well you eat (not necessarily just healthy food, but the ratios of nutrients), sleep quantity and quality, stress levels, hydration, active recovery such as massage, stretching, foam rolling and to a greater or lesser extent your genetics. Ultimately, your recovery rate can’t be measured really, but if you track how you feel and are aware of your mental and physical well-being during your days as a whole, you’ll be able to gauge how much you should or shouldn’t run.

 

The takeaways

Run no more than 45 minutes, 2-3 times per week for your easy/recovery runs. Listen to your body and give it what it needs, rest and good fuel, in order to optimise recovery as these will be far more important to your recovery and success than squeezing in an extra few miles.

 

Written by Kyle Brooks, Running Coach based in Norwich, Norfolk