Most of the NAU team runs six days a week. Colin Sahlman has mentioned it in interviews. When Drew Bosley was posting on Strava, he ran six days a week. I can’t say for sure about Nico but it’s likely. There are a lot of top level athletes that are only running six days a week at the moment. Kessler, Hocker and Teare only run six days a week. Parker Wolfe and Graham Blanks only run six days a week (as evidenced by their Strava, at least when Wolfe used to post). I think UNC and Harvard have a lot of athletes only running six days a week. Nick Willis was famous for taking a day off each week. Josh Kerr, as mentioned by another poster (kind of crazy, in a time when double threshold and doing more is so popular, the gold and silver medalists in the 15 only run six days a week and like 70 mpw). A lot of top Africans run six days a week. The entire BYU team takes Sundays off. There could be something to it. But plenty of runners are successful running every day, too.
Yes - the NAU team takes Sundays off. Workouts Friday night and hard long run Saturday morning. Its stacking the work then absorbing it Sunday with a day off. Recovery at 7,000 feet is also much harder.
Google Jack Shea week of NAU training. Google Matt Baxter training log. If all NAU runners take a day off every week now, it's a new development.
Most of the NAU team runs six days a week. Colin Sahlman has mentioned it in interviews. When Drew Bosley was posting on Strava, he ran six days a week. I can’t say for sure about Nico but it’s likely. There are a lot of top level athletes that are only running six days a week at the moment. Kessler, Hocker and Teare only run six days a week. Parker Wolfe and Graham Blanks only run six days a week (as evidenced by their Strava, at least when Wolfe used to post). I think UNC and Harvard have a lot of athletes only running six days a week. Nick Willis was famous for taking a day off each week. Josh Kerr, as mentioned by another poster (kind of crazy, in a time when double threshold and doing more is so popular, the gold and silver medalists in the 15 only run six days a week and like 70 mpw). A lot of top Africans run six days a week. The entire BYU team takes Sundays off. There could be something to it. But plenty of runners are successful running every day, too.
Doesn't Blanks also run 100 mpw at 6:00? He needs a day off
You are right that it's not a blanket occurrence but it definitely is the norm. Freshman and those that may be lower mileage take Sunday off almost always. If people run on Sunday its not a team practice but OYO.
My kid went to NAU recently and never ran on Sundays until their 5th year under Smiths training. And they are one of the higher mileage athletes on the team.
Paula Radcliffe took every 10th day off. Her reasoning made more sense with regards to a 10 day training cycle rather than the construct of a 7-day week. But the main point is that rest IS training. I wish I had learned that as a young runner. Once I started taking a day off every week in my late 30's/early 40's I achieved some of my best running.
Overt the course of a year if you take a day off once a week you are missing over seven total weeks. That is a lot of time. I would think the one in ten days might be a more optimal plan for efficacy. Unfortunately, our calendar doesn't mesh well with that system. So although I think a day off a week is too frequent, it is a much easier way to have a specific routine. And that counts for something as well.
Brosnan also does one day a week off for his athletes. He’s said in interviews that they maybe run 15min for their day off. It’s a shake out day. People have said Brosnan and Smith have always been similar and that’s why the Newbury Park to NAU transition has been good.
PSA: You don’t get faster when you are running. You get faster when you are recovering. By not allowing that recovery the body stays in a state of never fully super compensating(the process of getting faster) from the work put in. Running 7 days a week is solely for the mental side for people that really need that, but physically it is way more productive to let adaptations fully actualize as opposed to hammering more before the full benefits come to fruition.
This post was edited 2 minutes after it was posted.
Overt the course of a year if you take a day off once a week you are missing over seven total weeks. That is a lot of time. I would think the one in ten days might be a more optimal plan for efficacy. Unfortunately, our calendar doesn't mesh well with that system. So although I think a day off a week is too frequent, it is a much easier way to have a specific routine. And that counts for something as well.
There is a law of diminishing returns with training volume (and it kicks in much lower for almost everyone than most want to admit). Your body needs recovery time to rebuild stronger. The human body is not a computer or machine.
You're not really "missing" those off days if the recovery allows the other days of training and racing to go better.
Grain of salt with things like this. Their 6 days of training would put most of us in a body bag. It's not like they're getting a day off in a 40-50 mile week where you're doing 1 hard session/week. The 6 days probably packs a big punch & then you get a day to have full recovery. Makes sense at altitude. We've seen distance runners like Ryan Hall & others do a 6 day week for religious reasons. They're still logging 120mpw. The week isn't that much easier & it definitely makes some days a lot harder because you don't have another day to spread it out.
Take isn't that a day off works or doesn't work. You could spread out Hiltz's current training into 7 days. You could map it out in 6. Do what works for you but think about key sessions & if you're recovering from them.
Jakob, the greatest mid/disance runner in history, takes no days off. Sounds like he doesn't even take time off between seasons (see today's Brusell's interview).
Jakob, the greatest mid/disance runner in history, takes no days off. Sounds like he doesn't even take time off between seasons (see today's Brusell's interview).
Gebrselassie no days off (twice every day).
Bekele no days off.
Komen wasn't taking days off.
Neither was Kipchoge.
Kelvin Kiptum no days off.
I'll leave it at that.
There might be different ways of training for generational talent. For most average people, and even most elites a regular day off every week or two can be an important part of training.
I mean, this list is comprised of either actual or potential GOATs. Most elites take days off, if not every week then probably every 3 - 8 weeks, depending on when their down week is.
Honestly, the key thing is how well people can recover. It makes more sense for college athletes and working pros to take a day off a week because they have other stressors in their life. But the full time, running only pros can get away with not taking a day off because their lives revolve around resting.
I would bet that Jakob probably couldn't sustain his double threshold + hills routine week in, week out base phase if he had to also work a 9-5.
I was reading a TFN profile on Nikki Hiltz and came across this:
It took about a year to adjust to the rigors of Smith’s program. “We do a 6-day training cycle and we take every Sunday completely off,” Hiltz says. “And I think when you’re training at 7000 feet that’s really important. It’s about how much work can I get in and still recover. That off day every week honestly saves me.”
Is that just for her or does Nico and the BYU men do the same thing?
Seems to work very well for 99% of the Kenyan top runners last decades
I was reading a TFN profile on Nikki Hiltz and came across this:
It took about a year to adjust to the rigors of Smith’s program. “We do a 6-day training cycle and we take every Sunday completely off,” Hiltz says. “And I think when you’re training at 7000 feet that’s really important. It’s about how much work can I get in and still recover. That off day every week honestly saves me.”
Is that just for her or does Nico and the BYU men do the same thing?
What so,so many coaches and runners seems to forget ( or don't have the knowledge about? ) is that the right recovery is at least as important as the effort .....it's during the recovery phase the real training effect occurs, the so called ' supercompensation'.🇸🇪🧙🏼♂️🇸🇪
Hiltz has been on Strava for various periods of time while being coached by Smith. Hiltz is not doing 12 runs in 6 days. It’s about 70-75 miles per week and would look something like this:
M: 8/4 double. Strides and wickets.
T: Double threshold, usually 10 miles of T broken into 6 AM and 4 PM. 16-18 miles total for the day.
W: 10 miles
Th: 8/4 with drills and 6 x 10s hills
F: 3 AM / faster workout PM. Sometimes really fast, very low volume. Like a fast 600, some fast 4s maybe some fast 2s and some threshold to cap the workout. Could be a VO2 day. High volume of 200s at race pace. You get the idea. Something faster on this day. Overall mileage of the PM session is usually low. If it’s a longer VO2 day then no double.
Sa: 14 miles
Su: Off
9-10 runs in 6 days. When Drew Bosley was on Strava he followed a similar pattern but much more volume. I can shared that too if people are interested.