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?
Seemed to work okay for Bernard Lagat.
TFN reader wrote:
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?
Josh Kerr also takes a day off
Days off (every 7-10 days) are vastly under-rated. It nothing else, it lowers injury risk, and there is no way you 'lose fitness' with one day off. High schoolers, especially, should never be expected to run more than 6 days a week, and I'm willing to bet that most high schooler's (most, not all) could run equally well, if not better, running only 4-6 days a week.
off days r key
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.
As an obsessed 20-24 year old who never took a day off (and even doubled on my 'easy Friday' I was super super fit but couldn't put it together in races. I had a huge break (7 years) and am back at it as a 37 year old. I'll never be the 1500m runner I was but I'm probably as good as ever over 10km +. Always take Mondays off and train once on Fridays. The brain is a muscle, for non pros, rest is massive. I feel huge emotional lows on Mondays but can't wait to get back to it on Tuesday. Every week. Always re-inspired!!
Used to argue amiably w Joe Henderson about this: I claimed I needed one day off per week to give the body parts a break and to keep my running mania in control. He was on like a 10+ year "streak." No days off. I admired his dedication but said that for the top-drawer cats, pros and elites that might be necessary,but since I--we!😁--were no threats to becoming that caliber I thought the reasonable thing was on the side of caution against strain and injury--esp since we werent growing younger. Rest is good.
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TFN reader wrote:
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?
Would you do curls 7 days a week for big biceps? No. Every runner needs to read up on the concept of adaptation, recovery, compensation, super compensation....
Its like pulling teeth to get my runners to take a week off at end of season.
One day off wont hurt and it gets you a leg up on adaptation, which ultimately is all we care about? Maybe its 1 in 7 or 1 in 10 I don't know. Why not run 3x a day if more is better? Research does show that you don't recover in 24 hours. If you did everyone would do a long run or work out 1 day out from race. So, at least in theory, we all are running on tired legs farther and farther into a deficit all week. It would make sense to take a day off every X days to me.
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100% chance the OP is Rojo.
Running more frequently allows the body to compensate by recovering more quickly without the need for breaks. It is why we do doubles. When you run twice a day, your body adapts and recovers more quickly. Yes, you still need to keep much of the running easy. But it does work. I was always most healthy and running best when I was running 7 days a week and doubling 5 times a week.
That is not to say that you can't or shouldn't ever have a day off. But I always found that I never planned a day off and then when I needed to have the day off, I took it and didn't worry about it.
Rojo Detector wrote:
100% chance the OP is Rojo.
100% correct. You can tell by the poor grammar.
Norman \"No Neck\" Nunzio wrote:
Running more frequently allows the body to compensate by recovering more quickly without the need for breaks. It is why we do doubles. When you run twice a day, your body adapts and recovers more quickly. Yes, you still need to keep much of the running easy. But it does work. I was always most healthy and running best when I was running 7 days a week and doubling 5 times a week.
That is not to say that you can't or shouldn't ever have a day off. But I always found that I never planned a day off and then when I needed to have the day off, I took it and didn't worry about it.
If you wait until you “need” a day off do you thinks it’s too late?
Yes days off wrote:
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.
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TFN reader wrote:
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?
If you do not take off days from training, your body and mind eventually will.
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