RunPackGuides · 5 min read
How hard should I run today? A simple morning check
How to decide between an easy run, a hard session or a rest day using how you slept and how you feel — no watch required.
Most runners get the hard days right. It’s the easy days that go wrong: running them too fast, or pushing through a hard session the morning after a terrible night. A quick check before you head out helps you pick the right run for the day.
Four questions
- How long did I sleep? Compared with what’s normal for you, not with a number from a chart.
- How well did I sleep? A long night of broken sleep isn’t a long night.
- How do I feel? Energetic, flat, somewhere in between.
- How sore am I? General tiredness in the legs is normal; it’s the trend that matters.
Turning answers into a plan
- Mostly better than usual: a good day for the hard session you planned.
- About normal: run the plan.
- Mostly worse than usual: swap hard for easy. The hard session will be better tomorrow.
- Much worse, several days running: take a rest day.
The key word is usual. Everyone’s normal is different, which is why comparing with yourself works better than any fixed rule.
The 10-second version
RunPack’s morning check-in asks exactly those four things — hours slept, plus sleep quality, feel and soreness on a 1–5 scale — and turns them into a check-in score against your own recent mornings. No watch needed. If you do wear a watch or ring, RunPack also builds a recovery score from heart-rate variability, resting heart rate and sleep. Read how the recovery score works.
One rule above the rest
If you feel very different from what any score says, trust how you feel.
This is general training guidance, not medical advice. If you feel unwell, rest and talk to a doctor.