Runningart2004 wrote:
Just run baby. Give me one solid reason why you should take WEEKS and WEEKS off?
Alan
This is such a STUPID sentiment...how could you even suggest this? There are literally a 100+ reasons to take time off.
To the OP: TAKE AT LEAST A WEEK AND A HALF OFF!!!! You have no idea how long your freshmen year of college is going to be and what a wear racing that long will take on your body. You will need all of the rest you can get. Additionally, you may come in stronger if you don't take any time off at the end of the season, but I have seen many freshmen over the past five years run through their senior year of HS and then that summer, just to run out of gas mid October when it starts to matter...
You need the time off for numerous physiological reasons, but basically it all comes down to letting your body (and your mind) recover...your muscles have been worn down and even if you have not raced hard yet, you probably will with state meets coming up soon....
Is your college coach any good? I know many are not and if you have the unfortunate luck of ending up with the poorer ones I would suggest reading several books to get a better idea (you can search on here for what would be best but I might suggest Running with The Buffaloes, talks about how they all took time off during the summer as well as very entertaining, I think every college runner should read it, I also think Daniels Running Formula is a good place to START)
Hopefully though you have a good coach and if this is the case just email him or call him with your idea here and he will probably tell you not to worry just take time off....BTW don't necessarily think that just becuase your coach is telling you to do something different than you think should be done that he is not a good coach...look at his past successes and such...
Anyway...a lot of rambling to say that you have a long year of running coming up your freshmen year of college...take the time off now. Good Luck...nothing like college running.