Just wanted to hear some varying opinions on this. So last year, from February- September when I was home from school due to Covid, I trained really, really hard. I took advantage of the time from Covid to work on things I needed to strengthen and improve. I did a lot of hard workouts, I cut down in weight, I did it all. Hard fall training, competed, and then I came home for the summer. I took 2 weeks off-- first week was no strength or running, and second week was just no running. After that I got back into training, but it isn't as intense as last year. I felt I needed my body to do more recovery since I really missed that last year, so my workouts are more runs, workouts on turf, hills, etc. Lots of strength training still, but I've been struggling a bit recently. I'm still relatively lean, but not as much as last summer (which I assume is fine) and I've been mentally struggling a little recently. I got attacked by a dog about a month ago, so now I'm having a lot of anxiety. I'm having trouble sleeping, I feel unmotivated, tired a lot, etc. I'm wondering if it's okay to take some time off from training, maybe a few days? to recover mentally a little and then try to get back into it.
How does your training work? I'm in my last year of school, so I'm def older now and think maybe generally I'm just exhausted from training (I'm a d1 heptathlete).... do you guys take full rest days/week during your summer training?? How about regular training? Should I take time and then when I start up again just ramp up my workouts and train harder?