Post race recovery and return to race training is an area that we have not yet been in a position to specifically address. The issue being that we have a unified training algorithm, and the way this handles post-race training is no different to normal training. The problem here is that when and how people return to training is extremely variable. Being affected not only by physiological recovery, but also motivation. In this last respect, a majority of people take a significant break (entirely) from running following a race. Due to these reasons and other assumptions we had to make during our present algorithm development, bias has no doubt crept into the system, where in some situations (more commonly for endurance races) it would appear that the system can be over-optimistic on the amount of rest needed, and schedule a more rapid return to full training than people may desire. However, it must also be said, that from user experience (i.e. users who have decided to ‘give their plan a go’) they have been relatively surprised at how well they ended up coping – indicating that expectation and motivation is not to be underplayed.
Naturally this is an area that we are extremely keen to research and address in the future. In the meantime, our recommendation is to pay attention to your body and mind, and drop / cut-back runs until you believe that you are fully ready to commit to training again. Our FAQ, ‘How do I schedule X days of rest following my upcoming race?‘ may also be of interest.
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