Sorry Alan I think you are wrong. You know what team takes time off? They also have pretty good guys. The unviersity of colorado team takes two weeks completely off after outdoors and xc. I would say that they have done pretty good so far. You know who else takes a week or so off? The gouchers before the world champs and yeah adam didnt win or whatever but he still made it and can beat most people in this country and a lot in the world. I know several other pro runners that take time off. If you work hard at all during the season you should take time off.
I used to have a mind set like yours, no time off longer than 2 or 3 days and I tried avoiding that too. Then I learned that taking time off is just something most good atheletes do. It gives your mind a break and allows your body to just relax. I tried not taking time off last summer and had a piss poor xc season and summer of training because I never fully recovered from the track season. My mind and body were just exhausted and I would take several days off per week and was nickel and diming it. Then I listened to my body and took over a week off after xc and I was able to get excited again about training and came back and was able to have a good winter and ran huge pr's this spring. I am now in my week and a half off time and now I cannot wait to get back to training and I am really excited to be thinking about actually hitting 100+weeks for most of the base season.