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walk or run on recoveries

I was on Twitter yesterday and the European Journal of Applied Physiology posted it's findings related to walk or jog during your recoveries.

So it reads, very long story short, that if you jog for your recovery time you benefit from a greater boost in VO2 max. This, as further read, is great for endurance athletes because it allows the body to get used to burning fat for its energy vs. the carbohydrate stores.

I just happened to fall into the jog for my recovery period. I will walk very seldom for example feeling a leg or calf strain. I will walk it out if possible or just call it quits for the day cause there is no use pushing through a situation that can cause a long term injury.

I thought to share , what do you do for your recovery between intervals?

Comments

  • It varies for me. If it is a longer set of intervals that are tough from the get go, I'll do whatever I need to do (i.e; walk a rest interval vs jog) to make sure I hit the next work interval at 100%. Some days it's only a few, some none at all image YMMV
  • Interesting David. Can you put the link to the full article.
  • I usually jog simple because it is easier to start the next interval from a little run then feel that twinge when I go from walking to running. On the tread mill, I am guilty of occasionally jumping off the belt for a second or two while the machine slows down. Don't judge me.... image
  • O ya judgement is in Dino image
  • Hmm, I think this is one of those things that vary from person to person.

    I think generally, jogging the recovery intervals provides an extra training stimulus by not letting all that lactate totally clear out of your legs (or something to that effect). So basically, you start the next interval with a little extra fatigue. Personally, I find I can do this for say, the first few VO2 intervals, but towards the end of the set I find that it becomes much harder to jog and I end up walking a bit.

    Overall, I think the priority is to do what you have to do to consistently hit every interval with the same pace/intensity. If you can still jog the recoveries and do that, all the better. Otherwise, better to walk and take it easy so you can still run the intervals with quality, IMO.

  • In my experience I have gained from the jogging recoveries more than the walking.
  • Not a scientist, but it would seem the following statement says that Passive (walking) recovery allowed for a longer time at the same level of VO2 intensity, but not an increased VO2. I think that time at VO2 is better for endurance folks than a higher absolute VO2...thoughts?

    "Furthermore, before and after the SWHITP, passive recovery allowed a longer t (lim) for a similar time spent at a high percentage of VO(2max). "
  • As with most things...it depends...a good discussion/review here by Alberto Salazar in RunnersWorld;

    www.runnersworld.com/workouts/shoul...recoveries

  • I agree I have gained more from running at LRP or your EP between your interval sets.
  • I think the work is much more important than the recovery. I try not to overthink this and if I am on the track I will walk initially , sip water, then jog remainder of recovery. If on the TM after an interval, for recovery I will stand on the edges , sip water, while reducing speed, then get back on at recovery speed. Both of these pauses standing or walking are between 15-30 seconds.
  • FWIW from this EN noob, I prefer and encourage my friends to keep the leg turnover and back down to a jog. I don't usually get too many takers, but for me its psychological. I find it much harder to get started from a walk. I also believe that the stamina benefit of a hard interval set, or 10x Yasso's is enhanced if I can recover from a jog and still hit my numbers on the intervals. Same thing for me on a long run....never, never, never stop and for me walking is tantamount to stopping. Now that I'm doing long course triathlon I struggle with walking, and once it starts its a death spiral. Looking forward to executing the next long course race with an EN strategy.
  • No idea what's better in an objective sense. I do what makes me do the intervals best, which is run the interval hard...and walk a little and then get back to run/jog easy. Depending on how long the rest is, I slowly build pace back up. Even after the longest ones (e.g., those killer fast miles), I'm seldom walking even 100 yards (and I know this fairly precisely because I tend to do those intervals on a track).

    If you told me I had to walk them, I could.
    If you told me I had to run the whole thing and never walk, I would have to slow down or run shorter intervals.
  • Last OS (since I'm JOS this year, it's still tbd), for the Run FTP work, I did jog recoveries; while on the VO2 work, it was step off the dreadmill to the sides, cool down, take a sip, and return to jog.

    I tried to at least keep it consistent for those guidelines, except when other things (ex, sick, really hot, etc) got in the way.
  • I think the position from Daniels is closest to what Anson says.

  • "Run easy during recoveries." - J.D. DRF 2nd ed, page 129.
    It we are trying to develop VO2max it's all about time at VO2max, not maximum velocity. If you recover too fully, the first 10 seconds of each 30 seconds is not at VO2max and wasted as far as VO2max training goes. The consequence of walking is losing a third or more of the stimulus at the COST of additional fatigue/recovery burden downstream. When I was younger we walked or stood, but the race distances were shorter. Walking allowed more specific training for an 800 or 1600. Ten second alactic hill sprints can get you the strength benefits without messing up the rest of the week. While googling "Hudson alactic hill sprints" I turned up this. “My feeling is that it is better to develop the specific endurance,”says Hudson. “Running more than 10% faster than race pace is unnecessary, although I am not counting the alactic hill sprints, because that is a function of the muscular and nervous systems, and those always need to be utilized.” -Brad Hudson http://www.trtreads.org/uploads/Devoloping_Race_Pace_pt_2.pdf
  • Posted By Pat Koss on 08 Jan 2013 05:16 PM

    FWIW from this EN noob, I prefer and encourage my friends to keep the leg turnover and back down to a jog. I don't usually get too many takers, but for me its psychological. I find it much harder to get started from a walk. I also believe that the stamina benefit of a hard interval set, or 10x Yasso's is enhanced if I can recover from a jog and still hit my numbers on the intervals. Same thing for me on a long run....never, never, never stop and for me walking is tantamount to stopping. Now that I'm doing long course triathlon I struggle with walking, and once it starts its a death spiral. Looking forward to executing the next long course race with an EN strategy.
    ^^This is me too. It most certianly is all psychological for me, but once I start walking, my brain says I'm done. It's really hard for me to get going again from a walking standpoint back into a full sprint. Most of my intervals have been done on the TM so far and I've taken it back to a light jog for recovery periods. If I'm in a long race and I start walking then I know it's over because the times I start up to jog again get shorter and shorter. Just my personal experience.

     

  • I'm with Jason, Ansom, tim and William. What ever it takes to get the interval work in. I usually walk for a bit, then easy (like really easy) jog, then hit the next interval. I am always working on getting comfortable being uncomfortable on the run. This method helps me get the hard stuff in. I have always done run/walk in IM, so mentally it's not hard for me to run after the recovery...it's what I've always done.
  • I always try to jog/LRP pace during recoveries, but some days I'll cut the recovery in half or even less if I walk. Sounds like it's better to do active recovery jogs even though for a longer period of time than walking.
  • For TP and VO2 work I try to do EP recoveries - easiest pace I can maintain with quick turnover and good form.
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