Hi,

I know that many of us on this list are runners or used to be runners. My
question deals with the coach-teaching of doing an "easy" run the day after a
"hard" run in order to help or aid in recovery.

From a physiological point of view (or at least one of my thoughts) is that this
makes no real sense. If I run a hard ten miles on Monday at a fast clip, than on
Tuesday I should do perhaps 3 or 5 miles in a relaxed less stressful running
manner? How exactly does this help recovery? Isn't the analogy that if I bench
on Monday, I should not again bench on Tuesday due to inflicting more muscle
damage than is necessary to spark growth, strength gains and recovery?

Is this just a case of coaches in track or running community having different
philosophies than academic exercise physiologists?

Doug Kalman