I ran in my second meet of the year and ran two personal bests (wind-aided) two Sundays ago.
Due to my pumped-upness over the Sunday meet, I decided to run a 100m AND a 400m (a race I have no interest in, nor any clue how to run) two days later in place of my regular speed session. My coach told me it was a bad idea, but I had to just be a rookie and do it anyway.
My calves were sore for a week from the 400m race even though I jogged the back stretch to avoid killing myself in the last 100m.
I guess my question is, how much recovery should a low-level sprinter take after running a personal best, as opposed to a higher level athlete?
I ran 12.49 in the 100m, and 25.04 in the 200m, and my previous bests were 12.61 and 25.41 respectively. In the meet I ran two days later, I ran 12.60 and did not feel strong or coordinated.
Obviously I am a hacker, but still noticed that I could not run well two days after my PB’s. I would love to hear comments on how much rest to take after a PB for someone at my level.
Im a masters too and only a little faster than you. I would not take a full 10 days but at our age you should go by how you are feeling. After a hard day you should start doing recovery stuff right away. Use what ever you can get your hands on-massage, hot cold showers, traumeel, stim, therapy anything that will help you recover. Last but certainly not least, do not over look the importance of sleep. I find I recover better when I get good sleep. Most masters (because of our responsibilities cant get a full 8hrs) Another thing you can use is a trampoline to run in place and do cardio on. I dont know the long term effects because I noticed that when you get off of it, it feels like your muscles get used to the trampoline doing the work for you and you are looking for that springiness and its not there. But its good for me and it has helped my weak ankles and does make me work up a sweat. So who knows…
Another thing that has helped me is to make sure I work up a sweat and stretch really well after a hard day. For me it does not have to be tempo just anything that makes me sweat and heats up my legs well enough to get a good stretch in.