Running performance does not depend solely on accumulating mileage, but primarily on the quality of recovery, which involves intentionally slowing down recovery runs and strategically planning the schedule to optimize rest windows between intense sessions.

noli's read

The community largely agrees on the importance of recovery, with a strong consensus that overestimating the intensity of 'easy' days hinders progress. Sports science widely validates this principle of polarized training: studies, particularly meta-analyses on polarized training (Seiler et al.), confirm that a large majority of volume should remain at low intensity to allow for optimal adaptation without exhaustion. The idea of manipulating the schedule to create 36-hour non-running windows after an intense session is a pragmatic strategy consistent with the principles of supercompensation, although specific data on the precise '12h before' timing is less documented than the overall impact of sleep and load management. It is important to note, however, that excessively slowing the pace can sometimes alter biomechanics for some runners, and that the need for recovery is highly individual. The psychological aspect, highlighted by participants as resistance to lowering intensity, is an obstacle well-identified in the literature on endurance athlete behavior.

the sources

1. 1Wang Z, Wang YT, Gao W, Zhong Y 2023
2. 2Bonnar D, Bartel K, Kakoschke N, Lang C 2018
3. 3r/AdvancedRunning