Listening to your body is a good way to know when you are recovered from a hard race.
I ran a half marathon last weekend. It was in Bethel, NC in a scenic valley below Cold Mountain. Yes that Cold Mountain! The places in the book/movie are real places. I wasn't quite as bad off as a wounded soldier walking home from the Civil War, but I was hurting a little after the race.
I am now in the recovery phase. I try to move sore muscles to work out the stiffness, so I did some walking the evening after the race. I usually run a very slow easy mile or so the day after a race. I started an easy recovery run the day after this race. I ran to the end of the driveway, and my legs protested loudly enough that I decided to walk instead. I waited until two days after the race for my first slow easy run.
One rule of thumb is to take an easy day for every mile of the race. However another good rule to follow is listen to your body. Simply take it easy until you feel like running longer and harder again. When you feel like a long run again, it is your body's way of saying it has had sufficient recovery time. When you still don't feel like anything but short easy runs, your body is telling you that it needs more recovery time.
Learn to listen to your body. It's a good way to recover from races or other hard runs. It is also a good way to train and prevent training injuries.
