Recovery run with strides
An easy recovery run finished with a few short controlled accelerations.
Also called: easy run plus pickups.
Adding four to six strides to the end of a recovery run costs almost nothing in fatigue and keeps your legs familiar with fast, relaxed running through heavy training blocks. Take a full walk-back recovery between them so they stay strides rather than becoming a session.
The session
Shown at a 4:00 marathon reference — 41 min total, about 5.9 km, including 2 min of quality work.
Session
- 36 min easy (6:43–7:24/km)
- 5 × 20 s strides, jog back between
Why this session works
Easy running plus a few strides — recovery for the metabolism, a wake-up for the nervous system. The strides cost nothing and keep mechanics crisp.
Source: Barnes & Kilding 2015. Training phase: build.
Run it at your own paces
Open the workout generator and enter a recent race time — every rep length, recovery and target pace is recalculated for your fitness, and the session exports to .fit for a Garmin watch.
Frequently asked questions
What is a recovery run with strides?
An easy recovery run finished with a few short controlled accelerations. Adding four to six strides to the end of a recovery run costs almost nothing in fatigue and keeps your legs familiar with fast, relaxed running through heavy training blocks.
How long is this session?
At a 4:00 marathon reference it comes to 41 min and about 5.9 km, of which 2 min is prescribed quality work. The generator scales both to your own paces, so a faster runner covers more ground in the same time.
Who is this workout for?
It is written for the build phase of a marathon build. The distances shown suit a 4:00 marathoner; enter your own recent race time in the generator and every rep length and target pace is recalculated for you.
More recovery runs sessions
- Recovery run — Short, genuinely easy running to promote recovery rather than add training stress.
- Shakeout run — A very short, very easy run the day before or the morning of a race.