Hard Training Efforts Should Be Followed By Easy Efforts
Bowerman's Training Principles
6. Hard training efforts should be followed by easy efforts.
Athletes only have a certain amount of energy that can be utilized. The amount varies from individual to individual, but the basic concept of a day-to-day energy cycle is that after hard work the body needs rest.
In the training of runners, the work performed is only as effective as the recovery which immediately follows it.
Workouts damage the body. It is in rest the body repairs and improves. This is perhaps the most important, and fundamental, concept of training.
While the best workouts for runners are widely debated, the best recovery methods are not. They’re simple and well known:
Sleep well
Eat real foods
Hydrate adequately
Compression boots, cryogenic chambers, vibration tools, and compression socks are widely popular and widely ineffective.
You can have all the recovery tools at your disposal but if your sleep hygiene is not consistent, your nutrient intake is not adequate, and hydration levels are not proficient, then no amount of recovery toys will make up for it. The only benefit from these novel gizmos is placebo. Otherwise, they’re a waste of time and money.
The Oregon System established by Bowerman, and continued by Dellinger, called for 2 hard workouts a week on Tuesdays and Saturdays plus a mild session on Thursdays. Sunday was an easy long run of no more than 15 miles at 6:30/mile pace. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays were very easy days of 20 - 30 minutes of light jogging or swimming, nothing more.
Most of Bowerman’s runners logged 70-80 miles a week. If the 3 easy days per week totaled roughly 15 miles, plus the 15-mile long run, that means 40-50 miles each week were covered between those three “hard days.”
This is why his runners were so good. They were accustomed to a very high quality of work, not quantity. And their rest following workouts was deep and rejuvenating. Because Bowerman-trained runners’ training was consistently quality-focused, their racing performance was equally high quality.