Why do I feel strong after previous night race?

[Dan]

I was doing some reading on all the old posts here and I think I have some clues, but I was wondering a few things.
I have noticed that if I do an evening race (the last being a Friday 5K) the next morning I go out to add some base miles and I usually feel pretty strong and/or feisty.

I would think after pushing myself hard at night the next morning I would have fatigued legs. Yet I find my body wanting to run at a brisk pace. Why is this? Also- I will usually just control my pace and not push it- I suppose my question is should I go ahead and do a pace run the next day after an evening where I run hard IF my body feels that responsive?

As always, thanks for the input here, it is great!

[Cheryl Keith]

That's interesting because the fastest 5K I've ever run was the day after I raced a 10K.  You would think your legs would be fatigued and you wouldn't be able to run as fast, but that obviously isn't the case.  So why is that, you smart people on the blog?

[Sasha Pachev]

Active adrenal glands. Fuel and oxygen are by far not the only limiting factors of the performance. You go have plenty of both and still run poorly due to the failure to generate enough adrenaline.  There is a reason adrenaline-boosting stimulants are banned.

[Paul Petersen]

Probably pretty similar to how most coaches will want you to run strides the day before the race. Gets the nervous system chugging.

[Dan]

OK so that makes some sense, makes me wonder if I should run a practice 5K before the night before my next real 5K - so the question becomes- SHOULD I run fast the next day after a race if my body is telling me to do so? Or is that bad for my training?

[Paul Petersen]

Do 6-8x30s strides the day before the race at 3K-5k pace or so.

Personally, I wouldn't run hard the day after the race. It's asking for injury. Limit yourself to "pushing the pace" to only twice/week, and never on back-to-back days.

[Sasha Pachev]

The idea of a practice 5 K the day before may sound crazy, but if you find through experimentation that this produces the fastest times in the real race, go for it. It would be rare, but not impossible. However, even if it is the case, I would be trying to understand why it takes a whole 5 K to kick the nervous system into gear, and researching ways to do it without a race effort. So maybe run 1 K at race pace the day before, or do the strides that Paul recommended.

[Joe Furse]

When I was in high school, my XC coach my senior year would have us run a hard "practice" 5K two days before the race, then take it easy with a little bit of quick stuff (but not a hard workout) the day before.  My track coach, on the other hand, would have us take it very easy two days before, and then do a little bit more intense work (but still not a "hard" day) the day before.  His theory was basically to go on a three day "easy, moderate, hard" schedule so your body would be expecting a hard day on race day.  Both approaches worked very well for me in those shorter races, so I suppose it just depends on the person.  I think there are probably nearly as many successful ways to prep for a race as there are people, so it just depends on what works best for you.  Probably not a terribly helpful post, but that's my $0.02.