From the Coach guide
Sleep, rest, and optional activities support recovery between runs.
Coach leaves at least 1 full rest day each week. A rest day is part of the plan, not a missed workout.
Protect your sleep. Adults usually need 7–9 h each night. Athletes may need more during hard training.
Yoga combines movement, breathing, and relaxation. It may support short-term recovery after hard exercise.
Try 5 min of cyclic sighing. Take a second small inhale, then exhale slowly. Slow breathing may help manage stress.
A guided 10–20 min practice may improve sleep quality for some people. It does not replace sleep.
Choose a mobility, yoga, or stretching video, or skip it. These activities do not change your running plan.
A building block of 4 weeks includes a lighter week, reducing volume by 20%–30%.
Coach plans rest and easy runs after a race. Your pinned runs are easy too. After a 5K or 10K, you rest for 1 day. Coach plans no hard runs for 3 days. After a half, you rest for 2 days. Coach plans no hard runs for 1 week. After a marathon, you rest for 4 days, and your runs are 30 min or less until day 14. Coach plans no hard runs for 3 weeks.
Before your goal race, Coach reduces your weekly distance each week. The taper is about 3 weeks for a marathon, 2 weeks for a half, and 1–2 weeks for a 5K or 10K. In race week, you run about half of your peak distance. You keep 1 hard run each week.
| Race | Taper before | Rest for | No hard runs for | No long runs for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5K | 10 days | 1 day | 3 days | 2 days |
| 10K | 10 days | 1 day | 3 days | 2 days |
| Half marathon | 14 days | 2 days | 7 days | 7 days |
| Marathon | 21 days | 4 days | 21 days | 14 days |
Recovery periods count from the day after the race. Short recovery runs are at most 30 min.
Meta-analysis of 12 trials; 785 adults
Breathwork reduced reported stress by a small-to-medium amount (g = −0.35). Ten of the 12 trials used slow-paced breathing.
Most studies had some risk of bias. The findings concern reported stress, anxiety, and depression. They do not show faster muscle repair or better running recovery.
28-day randomized trial; non-athletes
Participants practiced for 5 min per day. Cyclic sighing, with a longer exhale, improved positive mood more than mindfulness meditation.
This exploratory study measured mood and breathing, not sports recovery or tissue repair. One trial does not establish the best breathing method or dose.
Systematic review and meta-analysis
Mindfulness improved sleep quality versus nonspecific active controls (g = 0.33). The review rated this evidence as moderate strength.
The review found no clear benefit over specific active treatments for sleep. It studied general adults, not runners or muscle repair.
Athlete sleep consensus; small basketball study
Eleven collegiate basketball players extended time in bed to at least 10 h for 5–7 weeks. Sprint times, shooting accuracy, mood, and alertness improved.
The study had no control group and included only male basketball players. It did not compare sleep with other recovery methods or establish one sleep target for all athletes.
Crossover trial; 20 male athletes
After HIIT, 15 min of yoga improved short-term heart-rate variability and breathing rate more than static stretching.
The trial measured short-term recovery markers after HIIT. It did not test rest-day videos, soreness, muscle repair, or running performance.
11 recreational runners, tested before and 7 days after a marathon
Soreness was highest in the first days and was near normal by day 4. Aerobic fitness and running economy showed no clear change at day 7.
A small study that did not measure muscle damage. The rest and easy days after each race distance are app conventions from common coaching guidance, not trial results.
Two meta-analyses (27 and 14 studies); training logs of 158,117 marathoners
The largest gains came from cutting volume by 41–60% over 1–3 weeks, with intensity and frequency kept. Marathoners whose volume went down each week for 3 weeks finished fastest. A 4th week added nothing.
The marathon data is observational, not a trial. The exact weekly steps and the shorter taper for a 5K, 10K or half are app conventions inside the studied range.
Coach