Running blog series: Part 8: Recovery:

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Working as a Physiotherapist I get to see first-hand, the implications of poor recovery. The amount of runners who develop a cumulative injury due to the build-up of micro-trauma that they didn't allow the chance to repair between sessions.

It is common place for runners to come in and say that “I run nearly everyday”. Well hopefully this blog series up to now should already be making you think differently about your training. 

Remember it’s not all about running!

So why shouldn't I run so often?

Well I remember reading a blog that was written by the first female winner of the marathon and she basically said one of the most important things to prevent injury is to not run more than 3 times per week. Interestingly she has found this from experience but truthfully I was already advising this to patients and telling them to cross train on the other days (we all know the benefits of this by now!).

Why should I do this then?


It’s all about healing times. Just because your muscles feel okay doesn’t mean that you are recovered. The reason for this is that muscle heals very quickly but tendon doesn't. Now ask yourself what types of injuries do runners get? Tendinitis/Tendinopathy? I bet is a huge proportion.

There is a good reason for this:

A long healing time is required for a tendon to heal due to poor vascularisation (blood flow) (Nowak & Handyford 2000). Some people believe just to recover the microtrauma from a run take at least 24 hours on average to repair. So if you do more than the average distance or heal slower than average person then you will need 48 hours. By my math this equates to every other day, which is a maximum of 3-4 times per week.

Now most runners that I see tend to be older and this has a profound effect of recovery.


As we age our articular cartilage becomes thinner & less elastic, Ligaments are less elastic & rupture at lower levels of force & blood supply is reduced, which slows recovery times.
Healing was found to be slower with age, this was found with delayed wound healing in older rats (Soybir et al 2013).

Aging & Disuse contribute to a tendon's loss of resilience & strength (Nowak & Handyford 2000). And this is where loading (strength training) is even more important than ever to compensate for the loss of strength.

Other effects include a deterioration of proprioception, particularly limb position & movement (Proske & Gandevia 2012). So proprioceptive training is also important.

An interesting fact is, on average, heart rate recovery declines with aging (Carnethon et al 2013). Obviously the direct effect on injury is not obvious with this however if you are more fatigued, with more lactate in your muscle then your technique and form will deteriorate, which in turn leads to increased injury risk.

Another reason not to over train is illness.


Despite being great for our overall health, exercise causes decreases in the region of 15-25% in lymphocytes, T cells and B cells, natural killer cells, and reduces the mucosal secretory functions of the nose and salivary glands.

This is even more of an implication if you are losing weight also:
2 weeks of weight loss before a competition can impair cell-mediated immune function & induce high susceptibility to upper respiratory tract infections in judo athletes (Shimizu et al 2011).

So make sure that when you design your program it has lots of variation and isn't all about running otherwise you risk injury and illness, which will in turn affect your performance.

Keep posted over the coming weeks for the next important aspect to improve your running.

If you need any further information or would like to book an appointment then call Hawkes Physiotherapy on 01782 771861 or 07866195914


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