It’s all about recovery! On this episode we take on the topic of easy days. The oft neglected cousing to the more “important” hard workouts, easy days are essential for improving performance. We have a tendency to “check the box” and the only consideration we take is how much mileage we need. In this podcast we walk you through:

  • Why we shouldn’t use pace or heart rate zones for easy days with well-trained runners.
  • The importance of the social side of easy days.
  • “Are you training to win or training to learn?”
  • Teaching the skill of running by feel.
  • How long should recovery runs be? The difference between a shakeout or
  • Adding “stuff” to your easy runs to get some adaptation.
  • Introducing the idea of “Running to the Barn.”
  • The modern nuance of hard/easy and why we need to consider the shades of grey between the two extremes.
  • “The Space Between”

 

Keep the Podcast going! Visit our Sponsor for Great Savings!

Stop putting off getting life insurance. It’s something we all need, and a company that values RUNNERS has stepped up to the plate:

Health IQ– An innovative insurance company that helps health-conscious people like runners get lower rates on their life insurance.  Go to healthiq.com/oncoaching to support the show and learn more!

Health IQ is offering special rates for us runners! Just submit your running data (race results, strava links, or similar) and see the special rates. Go to healthiq.com/oncoaching to find out more.

The Health IQ advantage is their unique mortality model on the health conscious and they have lower rates for health-conscious people (like a good driver savings on auto insurance).

 

Resources Mentioned on this weeks episode:

Bill Bowerman and the Hard/Easy Approach

Avoiding the Hard/Easy Trap. Runner’s World

Peak Performance on Stress+Rest= Growth

Jan Olbrecht’s graph on recovery from different workouts in his book The Science of Winning.

Share your thoughts with us on social media:

High-Performance West

Steve: Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube

Jon: Twitter and Instagram

Ways to Listen and Subscribe to the Podcast:

 iTunes

Stitcher

via E-mail

Youtube

Get My New Guide on: The Science of Creating Workouts

    3 Comments

    1. Madhu Basu on May 11, 2018 at 3:49 am

      “Teaching the skill of running by feel”.. This is the best thing that I learned from this podcast…We often ignore this seemingly important factor…..

    2. Carley on May 12, 2018 at 9:09 am

      I really enjoyed listening to this podcast. Running with a group is great, but I do see an increased tendency to run easy days at the fastest person’s easy pace. Your insights were welcomed with open ears and definitely hit home.

    3. Lorna Astley on May 23, 2018 at 2:09 pm

      I hope you don’t mind me contacting you but I was after a bit of advice. I recently read your article on thyroid madness. Last year I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and I have had to have my thyroid removed. I am now on an artificial hormone (levothyroxine) for life and I am struggling to regain my fitness. I just wondered if you had any advice you could give me. There is not much information online and before I was diagnosed I earnt a place in the London marathon for next year (2019) and I wondered if it was still possible to do it without a thyroid in a respectable time or whether it would be foolish. Any tips for how to go about this. At the moment I am running 4 miles a couple of times a week quite slowly as I am running to HR. My las marathon time was 3.47.

    Leave a Reply to Madhu Basu Cancel reply