The importance of rest and recovery on the body

To many long distance runners, the key idea of rest and recovery is a completely foreign concept. You see we only seek to run and to rest means less time running.


We fail to see the healing capacity of rest and view it merely as an inconvenience. Heaven forbid that we have to take the prescribed period of at least one months rest following a marathon. You see quite simply many of us train not for specific events but just so that we can train some more.

This is not the best path that we should be following if we wish to run our best. Even the best like Salazar and Rogers said that perhaps they would have had greater longevity if they had sought to rest for at least a solid 4-5 weeks each year.

Other reasons for rest following in particular ultras is that the amount of internal damage caused by a longer ultra has been likened to having a massive heart attack. Personally I believe that those done really slowly won’t ultimately cause as much damage as those run at a decent clip. For example someone going at 5min/km over 100km is likely to cause more damage than someone who will finish 100km in 16 hours or greater.

When in doubt I think that one can defer to the voice of Fordyce when he wrote, ‘If you are feeling unduly stiff or sore rest, if at all in doubt then rest’. – Sean Muller