RECOVER SMARTER.RUN STRONGER.

Reaping the benefits of training is all about how you spend the time that you're not running.

- CHRISTIE ASCHWANDEN, ERIN STROUT

YOU ONLY BENEFIT from the training you recover from. Workouts alone are not what make you faster and stronger, says Michael Joyner, MD, a physiologist at the Mayo Clinic. Fitness gains occur as tissue repairs itself. Without adequate rest, muscle damage from subsequent workouts builds, and eventually runners can reach a point of diminishing returns, Joyner says. Where that point lies is individual, but many athletes have run themselves into nearly career-ending periods of overtraining. Ultramarathoner Anna Frost, for example, had to take most of a year away from running, and marathon standout Ryan Hall retired at age 33 due to overtraining. To avoid a similar fate, carefully track how you're responding to your training-you want to notice yourself getting stronger and faster over time and stay alert for signs of overtraining, like fatigue that you can't shake. Often in those cases, the problem stems from a lack of recovery rather than the amount of training, says Shona Halson, PhD, a professor at Australian Catholic University's School of Behavioural and Health Sciences.

The quality of your recovery is everything. Here's how to leverage all the time in between your workouts to maximize your fitness and become a better, stronger runner. Christie Aschwanden When I first began reporting my book on exercise recovery, Good to Go, in 2015, I came to the subject eager to find new products and hacks that could expedite my return to readiness after a hard run. I knew that recovery was fundamental to my performance, and that lesson became more acute as I aged. Like everyone else, I'm getting older all the time, and my recovery slowed with each passing year. So I was hungry to find quick fixes that could speed things along.