When the topic of rest and recovery is raised with runners, many are often guilty of either paying it lip service, or only focusing on it when injury strikes or performance is affected. Both rest and recovery are your allies, rather than enemies, Mike says

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Sports Injury Fix director Mike James, otherwise known as The Endurance Physio, has spent over 25 years working with runners from novice to Olympic level. He’s also an accomplished runner with over 300 marathons and ultra races to his name (sportsinjuryfix.com)

There’s simply nothing that runners enjoy more than running, and the more you enjoy it the more you want to do it. The more you do it, the better you become and the urge to do more grows even greater.

“As a runner, I’m guilty of only considering rest and recovery when I have to, but as I get older (and hopefully wiser), I have started to focus on it more, and the benefits have been tangible,” says Mike.

‘Rest is rust’ is a widely held belief. In order to improve, training volume is important, and at certain times within a programme, fatigue, tiredness and some soreness are acceptable. “However,” says Mike, “recent research highlights that adaptation occurs during rest and recovery, not during the training itself.”