It seems like every time I have to take time off I always come back significantly faster than ever before. I'm not talking about xtraining for a week in the middle of a season; I mean having to take a month off or so and then ending up faster than ever before 2+ months down the road. Obviously you should be getting faster each year in your youth, but it seems like I get MUCH faster if I'm forced to stop running for a while between seasons. I'm faster now off of 2 months of training than I was 4 months ago off of 6 months of steady training.
Is there any science behind this?