Just Interested In what everyone thinks about taking days off??
Just Interested In what everyone thinks about taking days off??
1st December - 2nd of January the year after.
It's really annoying on 3rd of January to find yourself 20 pounds heavier doing 3 mile easy on the grass. And I end up the run as if I had a bad asthma or something.
karangasem.
Are you talking about weekly, seasonally, etc? I usually take one day off per week. Why? Because it seems to work for me. Additionally, the day I take off is Sunday which is usually a busy family day for me anyway. It's nice to take a day off without fitting a run or two in before the sun comes up, at lunch, between soccer games, etc. As for seasonally, at the end of road racing season (end of October for me) I take a week off completely.
No days off at all, except for 3 or so after the season is completely over.
One of my favorite times to train was the 2 months right after the college cross season. No more races or hard repeats but you were extremely strong in fit. Those first few weeks I could hammer every day, and did. Did whatever I felt like, no coach around to direct me. Fartleks, tempo runs. Every now and then I'd finish my run with a hard two miler on the track feeling great.
After track season finished I was ready for a break though. A week or two at the most of beer drinking, fried chicken and ice cream eating. No running.
Then it was time to start it all over.
I never thought of ever taking a day off any other time. But when you get older and have all those miles behind you and especially if you're running extremely high mileage, 2 or 3 days off a month can be beneficial. When you get to the point of running several days straight of having to will yourself every step of the way it might be time for a day off.
take about a week after a long and tough cross country season.. and perhaps a week or 2 right after track to rest up for a good xc... 2-3 weeks off per year is plenty...
Whats wrong with beer drinking, fried chicken, and ice cream eating during the season? In moderation of course.