Day 1 Week 6 – Active Recovery?

8 miles easy pace + 6 x 10 sec hill sprints

Are rest & recovery synonymous?  Not exactly.  According to Elizabeth Millard, rest is passive and a subset of recovery.  Because recovery also includes active components such as sleep.

Yes, despite its look, sleep is a form of active recovery.  It provides “much-needed repair work within your body . . . because when you sleep, your body releases growth hormones and works on muscle regeneration.”  So don’t skimp on sleep.

Another example of active recovery is recovery run.  According to the RunnersConnect.net, a recovery run can speed up body’s recovery process by flushing the waste products out of the fatigued muscles.  Hence the saying, run slow to run fast.

And a third example of active recovery is nutrition.  Foods with high glycemic index replenish body’s glycogen faster.  Here is a quick reference published by the Harvard Medical School on the glycemic index (as well as the glycemic load) for a listing of 100+ common foods.

What recovery works the best for you? 

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