One of the best ways to recover from a hard race or training effort, or to prepare in the form of a taper, is to do some kind of mild activity that promotes circulation, and is somewhere near an hour of effort.

Contrasted to simply doing nothing low intensity exercise can help in recovery efforts.  Increasing blood circulation, heating of the muscular tissues are two methods that low intensity exercise helps the recovery process.

Example workouts might include the following:

• Swim workout - 45-60 minutes of easy lap swimming
• Cycling - 60 minutes of flat to rolling hills kept at low zone value (zone 1 to 2 if you follow heart zones), level 3-5 if you do RPE (scale 1 to 10)
• Rowing
• Hiking (not a lot of hills, and not too much in the pack!)
• Kayaking

I’ve intentionally left out running as I do not consider any run a recovery workout.  The pounding experienced in a run is enough to undo, or prevent the kind of recovery you’re looking for.  It’s not to say you can’t get recovery in a 3 mile run if you normally run 10, it’s just that for a lot of us, running is not something everyone can recover from as quickly from as say a 15 mile bike ride.

The best times to incorporate an active recovery workout?

• Taper time
• 1 to 2 days after a triathlon, marathon, or adventure race
• Near the end of a periodized phase (6-8 weeks into an intensive training program)
• When you feel the signs of burnout

Hopefully this helps you in your training plan decisions.

Happy training!

-Coach B