Do most U.S. elite runners take at least one complete rest day a week?

Here are the results of the latest SCIENTIFIC research:

'according to a not-recent S.I. article--lance armstrong was quoted as allowing for 10 "rest-days" in an entire year--this while he was going for his T de F titles.

i would assume its about the same for ELITE level distance runners.'

coaching is an art as well as a science--

letsrun is not the best place to search for precise results of the latest studies...

personally, i'll bet on lance just about any day--

and any idjit w/ half a brain can tell the difference betwixt an off the cuff comment & "the results of the latest SCIENTIFIC research"

Are you an elite runner? Is someone writting you a check to go run, comping your races, maybe you're looking for prize money? If not, don't worry, one day won't affect you either way. Belive me, if you think doing an easy 30 is what's keeping you from a PR you are mistaken. Doing that is just a mental thing. If it helps you go on and have at it.

"Doing that is just a mental thing. If it helps you go on and have at it."

bump diddy bump. This is right on.

A coach that nearly everyone on this board knows has told me on several occasions that a missed run is a missed chance to recover. All runs do not create stress. You are more likely to get hurt when taking days off due to lack of recovery.

Also, it's pretty hard to be doing 120-140 MPW with a day off. So I would say generally the elite runners do not take rest days every week when in base or build-up phases. Whereas during the season, they DO take rest days more often as part of tapers and between races.

Technically wrote:

Well, if you finished a run on Monday morning at 8:00am and then started your next run on Tuesday morning at 8:00am you did take 24 hours off. Which is a day. So it's possible that you could run 7 days a week and still take 7 days off a week.

No it's not. Math isn't your strong point is it?

jizzmo wrote:

Are you an elite runner? Is someone writting you a check to go run, comping your races, maybe you're looking for prize money? If not, don't worry, one day won't affect you either way. Belive me, if you think doing an easy 30 is what's keeping you from a PR you are mistaken. Doing that is just a mental thing. If it helps you go on and have at it.

What about doing two easy runs of 60?

Technically wrote:

Well, if you finished a run on Monday morning at 8:00am and then started your next run on Tuesday morning at 8:00am you did take 24 hours off. Which is a day. So it's possible that you could run 7 days a week and still take 7 days off a week.

Ruff wrote:

No it's not. Math isn't your strong point is it?

His math is fine. Your reading comprehension could use some work though. Go take another look at what he actually wrote.

Ok- I think most of these are good answers. When I say rest day I mean not 24 hours since the last time you ran. I mean that specific day you do no running at all. So if you did a long run on Sunday, you take Monday as a 'rest day' and don't running again until Tuesday.

It sounds like some faster people take one complete day of rest per week and some don't. I don't like taking the rest days but I have been to see if they help. My brother in-law is a 2:30 marathoner and strongly advocates what he does which is one whole day of rest - not even cross training - once a week.

Lagat is on my twitter account so I think I might just ask him myself.

Wait, you are using Toby Tanser as a source of training information?

Wow.

Also keep in mind that most Kenyan elites run 3 times per day. So when they take a day off I'm sure that's why its not a big deal.

That is a myth. It is very rare for Kenyans to run 3 times per day, and when they do... one of the times is usually not much faster than a walk.

Read the book. All it is a documentation of each runner's training schedule. According the what they said, yes some do run 3x per day.

All I am really asking here is you or elite / fast runners you know take a day off per week from running. No running at all. And if anyone thinks it will help you become a better faster runner in the future.

I have a feeling you may be a troll (or not the OP), but just in case (and I will only say this once) - Toby has written 2 great books, but they are not gospel. There are also many cases where the athlete has exaggerated what they do in training. You can believe it if you want, but I am telling you from experience that MOST Kenyans do not train more than 2 times per day.

In 1987, in my last year of college, I joined the Haringey squad in London, coached by John Hovell. At that time, Seb Coe was training with our group on Sunday mornings (OK, 'with' is exaggerating - we were his cannon fodder...).

John worked out a schedule for me, and it included a rest day. I said something like "Is that really necessary?". He called Seb over and asked, "Seb, what's the most important session in your schedule?" Seb turned his head for a split second and said "The rest day".

Hard to argue with that. I tried it. And I got faster that season.

I read an interview where Bekele says he runs a double every day except for Christmas.

I take 3 weeks off every 6 months, in addition to 1 day a week.

I consider myself sub elite

I would consider myself elite, and i take a rest day off once a week.

I take do a long run on saturday and take sunday off.

if i race saturday i will sometimes skip my day off, but otherwise i try to take a day off. its how i have done it since i started my collegiate career 9 years ago, and it worked well for me, but I am interested in learning if this puts me at a disadvantage or helps.