I used to think my Monday easy run/hobble was a recovery day. But it’s really a check-in run to show my brain how my body is after a couple of days of hard training and to reassure it everything is as it should be.
If I go easy on the Monday run, the brain relaxes and says, “OK, everything’s all right. I’m not going to sound off any pain alarms”.
If I go too hard, my brain says, “WTF!”, and what might have been a slight niggle flares into injury pain that could last weeks.
Why might I run too hard on a Monday?
Maybe I’m feeling good. But even then I will have some residual fatigue from the harder or longer training on the weekend that my brain is keeping track of.
So if I run too hard for my brain’s liking, it puts the brakes on in the form of pain that could last weeks or months, usually in a tendon in my case.
And this check-in run must happen. If I don’t do it on Monday, then Tuesday will have to be at least partially a check-in run.
This is also why I only ever get injured on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, never when doing the hard workouts, even if without the fatigue of these I would never have gotten an injury.
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