Heavy Legs Runs?

Yes.

A lot of ultra distance plans call for recovery runs the day after your long run. I did a 16 week plan that called for a 60 minute "medium" run. Zone 2-3 sounds about right, and it feels like hell. It's my impression that this is mental training as much as physiological. However, training on dead legs is definitely a higher injury risk.

My $0.05: If you're going to run on heavy legs, it should be within a plan that has built up to a lot of miles (so you will recover more easily) and that allows for solid recovery after a string of difficult runs. It should not be because you have gotten in over your head and decide to HTFU anyway.

I am not super familiar with zones so I am not sure where a 2/3 falls.

I think recovery runs are totally advantageous but there is a pace at which you are in the no mans land where you are not really recovering but you are also not making other training adaptions. So, you need to make sure this is done at a very easy pace if you want it to serve as a recovery run.

Purpose needs to dictate the workout. 

Edited by Asalzwed 2014-01-30 4:40 PM

??? I thought recovery was Zone 1, or at most the very low end of Zone 2. If the purpose of the workout was recovery, you were pushing too hard. (And probably going too long, unless this is marathon or IM training.) If the purpose is to learn to run on tired legs after biking or in a marathon, then maybe there is some training adaptation, IF you can do this without getting injured AND you then take a day or two of recovery (rest, or swim only, or easy spinning on the bike) afterward. Adaptation doesn't actually happen during the workout, but during recovery.

I'd also consider if you're tired because of pushing running or biking. If your legs feel like lead because of lots of biking over the past few days, it's probably a bit less of an injury risk than overdoing the running, since the muscles involved are somewhat different and there's less impact with cycling. I'm currently in the middle of a bike focus and my legs pretty much feel a bit tired/heavy on all my runs lately, but it doesn't concern me too much since I know why! I just don't push the pace too hard on most of my runs right now.

For me personally, if I felt unexpectedly lousy and it wasn't a key session (long run, brick, or speedwork), I'd just slow down, take it easy, and get through the time/distance. If I felt truly horrid, I'd cut the distance a bit (say, 4 miles instead of 6). I've run tens of thousands of miles in my life, and I really doubt I'd DNF or get my butt kicked in my next race solely because I ran 4 miles on one or two days instead of 6. But I would be more likely to get injured or sick dragging myself through a workout without sufficient rest, just because that was what the plan said.

ETA Just read the part about the 50K over the weekend....um.....I can see why you're tired! Definitely suggest that you NOT drag yourself through a run until you feel fully recovered. Many times after long races, I've taken a few days off, felt "recovered", and then had it hit me up to a week or two later; pushing thru that almost always leads to illness and/or injury. I'd listen to your body.

Edited by Hot Runner 2014-01-30 10:43 PM

I'd say you know a bit more about this than I!

The rational for pre-fatigued running is that you are forcing your body to start at mile 15 instead of mile 1, so you are hypothetically getting the kinds of adaptations (efficiency, muscle recruitment, dealing w/ the voices) as longer runs. Pretty sure there aren't a lot of actual studies behind that statement, but hey, there aren't a lot of folks who run 50k as a tune-up race. Go easy if you go, and ice the sh** out of it.