Phelps’ Grind: Rest or Keep Going?

I went to a couple of olympic trials for swimming and spent 15 years training with olympians and wr holders. We used to take 2 weeks once per year after a major meet. Nothing to do with the body, just a mental reset.

As a 16 minute middle aged 5k hobbyist i see no need for a break and run all year 7 days a week as I enjoy it and hence no need for a mental reset.

Point being if you love the grind and are uninjured there is no need for a break. If running is not invigorating in some way, take your break as it'll be healthy for you. I used to love the break.

Planned rest days are part of training for elite athletes. You need to recover to improve.

The feeling is like starting from scratch — I was in the best shape of my life, and now it feels like I have to chase the version of myself from the past.
I’m wondering: did this break actually help me absorb all the work I’d done and make me stronger, or did I just waste time when I could have taken a few easy days and picked up right where I left off to get even stronger right away?

I just think running is different from swimming like you mentioned. The physical demands are different. The point with stuff like this is it's not going to be sustainable to hold peak fitness year round. You can be reasonably fit year round, sure, but I would guess even someone like Phelps went through periods of very easy training & the result would be a less fit athlete for a certain period of time. Swimming is a lot about maintaining your feel for the water. I can imagine him post-Olympics going from 2x/day with 10k yards to 1x/day with just 2k-4k nice & ez.

I know you might feel like you lost all this fitness but you're ballparking what you think you lost & even if you're right you're going to get back to 31:00 shape quickly & then you're going to train for the next mark. I almost think it's more important for the Olympic level athlete or very good amateur athlete to take time off. For someone running 31:00 it would be easy to think everyone else at a higher level isn't resting & I need to keep training hard to get better. Well, if you end up injured or burned out you won't be getting better. A good reset keeps you healthy & motivated, which equates to longevity & enjoyment in the sport. A true amateur athlete might not need to take any sort of break because they're naturally having periods of lower training throughout the year. They can go on a vacation & not train or have life get in the way & miss a few days every now & then. Their mileage/intensity doesn't necessarily warrant a break, although they could still take one. It also depends on what you're training for. An amateur training for short races can likely train year round. Most people should take some down time after a marathon.

I grabbed my pro triathlon license last year & I was being coached by someone who has finished top-10 in the world. They had me taking easy days, including complete days off, after B races, & a week off after A races. I took a season break 2x/year -- 1x in the summer after the biggest race of that block & 1x in November after the last race of the season. Don't live day to day with watch/fitness numbers. My watch doesn't really understand just taking a week easy & how that will leave me ready to go faster than when I'm in a heavy training block.

It depends on if the break is for mental or physical reasons.

Starting with the average athlete: my daughter has been grinding through. Takes 1 week of rest after track and 1 after XC. She actually only took 5 days after track this year and right back into the grind. Started at 40mpw and built to 60 pretty quickly. We change the focus in the off season to speed development and threshold, and leave VO2 and race specific pace for during the season. So far she is improving rapidly and never reports being tired or mentally burned out, so no need for a big break. Some of her teammates and the local competition take 2+ weeks off and then build up slowly, and she's leaving them in the dust. But maybe they need the break for mental reasons. When I ran, my coach had us take a lot of the winter off (really dumb); all it did was cause me a ton of anxiety because I knew I was losing my shape. I spent the track season racing myself back into shape and then would have a couple weeks of big PRs at the end of the season rather than just a nice steady progression. Contrast that with my daughter who definitely hit a high peak at the end of track, then about 6 weeks after starting training again crushed her PR at 5000m and then time trialed 2s off her 1600m PR in the first XC practice a couple days after cutting 0.5 from her 200m best. All these were on hot days so in real weather she's destroying her best times all the way across the board before even the sharpening during the season.

Pro athlete: I think it is event dependent. I lived with one of the best marathoners in the world at one point (not medal level but think more like his PR was top 50 all time). He never stopped training at all. My HS teammate and best friend was a top 10 US guy and never took any breaks. With track guys who do 800/1500, I think the intensity of their intervals probably requires some kind of down period but it may be more like what my daughter does, cutting down to threshold pace as a maximum and avoiding any hero-level workouts that they might be doing at some point in the sharpening phase. For 5000m/10000m athletes maybe it's somewhere in between.

I think for either average or pro athletes, if there is any mental staleness it is important to take some kind of break or change in routine because you have to be excited about what you're doing every day or you'll just be going through the motions. If you're excited and physically not beat up, I don't see the need for much of a break. For my daughter the break is probably more for catching up on other things she is behind on (learning how to drive this past summer for instance)

I'm not really an expert, my daughter is the only person I've coached and she's getting pretty good but it's not like she's Jane Hedengren or anything like that.

Phelps didn't miss a single "day of training." That means he never missed a scheduled practice but for example, he didn't swim on Sundays (pretty common for swimming programs).

You're overthinking it. You were peaking, now you are not. You can't hold a peak forever and just keep going up and up. You have to reset at some point. You need to do other phases of training (base training). Even if you hadn't taken time off and just gone straight into your base phase, you'd still be slower a month later because you wouldn't be doing the workouts you needed to stay sharp/race ready.

That said, your question about time off is still a good one. It's probably largely individual. I think two weeks completely off is overkill, but some people need that time to get a mental break after a long season. Or they may be run down and burnt out and need to recover. Others on the other hand may go stir crazy if they actually just sit around for a week. Regardless, you can't stay in peak race shape forever. The pros running 12:40s in August or September are not doing that in October.

Personally, I don't like to take a bunch of consecutive days off after a season. I notice I am more likely to get injured coming back after taking a bunch of days off and rather stay in the "rhythm" of running. So I usually do something like two days off, two days very short, two days off, and then start base training.

I was a bit faster than you, but not by a lot.

Loss of fitness does not happen linearly--it is exponential. You lose a little fitness in a week or two, but a month is significantly more than 2x what you will see in two weeks.

I agree with the comment about peaking by Sub 15. Put another way, your core fitness level did not diminish much, or perhaps at all in one week. Your performance ability temporarily reduced due to timing of your training. Most African long distance specialists take significant break periods annually. I also agree with the prior commentors on Running does not Equal swimming. Most specifically, it's impact driven. Swimming is not. For example, you still walk on non-training days. A swimmer might not have difficult training each day, but perpahs low intensity swimming is like walking to a runner. Long term achievement is rooted in training consistency and accuracy.

Swimming and running are different and put different stress on the body. Running wise, yes, you need some kind of break both physically and mentally. Also, the level you're training and competing at are a huge factor. Elite runners MUST take some down time, ideally it should be planned throughout the training phrase. This allows for optimal recovery so as to prevent injuries. When training/racing at such an intense level the body is repeatedly being broken done and built back up. This can only be done for so long before injuries and mental fatigue begin. That being said, time off and or rest doesn't mean shutting down. Active Rest is a great way to take down time without losing too much fitness. Whether it's hiking, biking, swimming or an occasional day off, it keeps you mentally fresh and gives your body time to heal. It's ok to lose a bit of fitness, it will come back and and serve you better in the long run.

You didn't lose 1:00 over 10k (10s per mile!) by taking a light week and a week off.

If "you'd be surprised" to come within a minute of what you did before that break, the issue is mental and bot physiological.

Want a break? Take one. Many elite runners do, including most Kenyans.

Am I wrong to think he could lose this much fitness? Maybe I would think I could because I was a headcase :)

Maybe on day 1 after a light week and a week off but once you do a week with light workouts you'd be pretty close to where you were. That's why I wouldn't pay attention to it at all. The down time will help your long term development OP. Even if you're 10s/mile slower you're intentionally 10s/mile slower & it isn't going to take you years to get that back.

Mental side: sometime you need a break
Physical side: As I have gotten older I have realized the most injury risky times come when trying to get back in shape after a break. You are fit enough to go out and pound a 20 miler but skeletal muscular part of you isn't strong enough to take the load. my solution for this is always stay running if you at all can.

What this doesn't mean... this doesn't mean you should run close to your max milage all times. you may take a month or 3 of easy running with little to no workouts or hard long runs.. that is great! then you can build back that speed pretty quickly. but trying to start from zero after 2 weeks for me is rough. you get sore that first week with or without workouts. then the next 2 weeks the injury risk is elevated running through that soreness. the human body will lose it if you don't use it for sure.

Now addressing that you feel much slower.. it really doesn't take that long to get back in shape when you look back on it. but during the bounce back it may seem like it takes a while

I think this is a more interesting question than most people acknowledge. Conventional US wisdom these days is to take a week or two off at the end of each season. But when I think of many athletes that truly seem to maximize their talent I’m not sure they do or did this. To my knowledge, Shorter, Rodgers, Belford, Foster, Coe and Ovett, the Norwegians, the Japanese marathon legends, and Almgren all take or took very, very few days off. Most run or ran at least twice a day, every day. I’m not saying you can’t take a week off once or twice a year and be successful, but there are some examples of very successful runners who take or took a Phelpsian approach.

One of the BEST posts I've ever read here. Thank you for the important and interesting insight -- and for writing it well.

Agreed. I always recall something Arthur Lydiard wrote which went something along the lines of athletes who only trained 6 days per week were missing out on 52 training days per year and hence would always be at a disadvantage to athletes who train 7 days per week. When I was younger I took this onboard as 100% fact and applied it without question. However I later came to realise that this is not necessarily correct. Depending on the athlete those 52 days of rest are often actually going to lead to more improvement and better results long term than never factoring in rest days.

Yes i see this

The only thing is if you don't take a break you could get injured.