Is taking a day off once a week okay?

Don't ask yahoo's on letsrun. If you want to be good, know thyself.

This doesn't mean you have to go ryan hall, which I am not saying is bad thing by any means. it does mean ,however, that you need to know your body and what works best for you. Running is very basic when it comes to developmental methods or workouts but highly individualized when it comes to success from training to racing.

Sheduling a day off every week will, at the very least, keep you from starting some ridiculous streak of consecutive days that you get so invested in that you are reluctant break it when your health clearly requires it.

This raises a good point, because that can be dangerous. I know a 14:00 5k guy who runs around 65mpw on 5 days of running usually. The point is you have to find what works for you, and without knowing much about your or your body type no one on these boards can make a truly accurate statement. I would trust your coach if I were you. Also, I never ran 7 days straight in high school (or very very rarely did) and I did fine. Now in college I take 1 day off every 2-3 weeks and I feel a little bit flatter (though this also comes with increased volume of work).

The best advice is just find what works for you, don't overthink or overwork because you have to make sure you're enjoying the sport, and whatever route you take in your training, you have to trust it completely. On raceday, you have to tell yourself that you're in shape, because doubting your training method is the first step to blowing up.

No! The running gods will put their dicks in your mouth and take a picture while you are asleep if you take a day off! Motherf***er!

If god needed rest than so should you

That's not a Question!

All common sense tells you your body needs a rest!

All Elites tell you the same!

Even the King Geb is always stressing on the importance of rest!

So who are you not to rest?

Rest is part of your training!

Never train when you feel sore, unless you are rehabilitating yourself or you are doing a very light work out!

Cheers!

Instead of taking day off, I jog 9min miles until I feel better

No, but stop calling it practice it's training

Calling it workouts is bad enough!

Radcliffe takes every 8th off, Lagat & Wanjiru every 7th!

For the first part of my career, I never missed a day. I had a streak through HS and let it slip a little in University.

Then I would take the occasional day off, but always a very easy day each week...5 miles jog with massage afterwards. That worked great.

Later, I moved to taking a day off every week or so. Sure, you need to adjust your mindset a bit in terms of miles/week, but in the end, you will get more out of the other training days and stay healthier.

Jeff Schiebler (27:36 and 1:01 half) took a day off per week. A lot of the Kenyans do also.

The bottom line is that if you are training moderately hard, run every day. If you are really training at either a high intensity or volume, then a rest day will do you good.

Of course taking a day off sometime is a good idea! Once a week is fine, and at minimum at least one day off every several weeks. Although it's obviously good for your legs physically, almost more importantly it's good for your mind to be able to relax for a day with no training to obsess about. Burnout is more mental than anything else, so giving your brain a day off from training along with your legs will pay off in the long run, towards the end of the season when you'll still be "in the game" mentally instead of fried.

Quit worrying about it so much and enjoy a day off! =)

Only if you run twice the next day !

dfdfdf wrote:

Radcliffe takes every 8th off, Lagat & Wanjiru every 7th!

Elites train 10x harder than they let on. "Most" of the elite kenyans run upwards of 150 mpw (source:

). You're lucky I let you in on this secret, now you can treat people's "rest is the key, don't train too hard, I don't!" claims with some apprehensiveness. Most of the time, they say this so people won't train as hard as them and potentially challenge them. Yeah there's guys running in the 28's for 10k with one day of rest a week cited on this thread; good for them. 27:30 for 10k is a joke to the Africans.

Wanjiru in particular trains like an animal (personal conversations with affiliated persons). That is to say, harder than you or I could ever imagine.

Personally I always got injured when I took a day off, can't explain it but it was sort of like my legs "softened" with the rest day and then something would "pop" out of place when I went back.

Before someone says "No one mentioned not training hard we were talking about a rest day", well a rest day 14% of the time IS not training hard.

Thomas Rollins wrote:

BroMan wrote:

Nick Willis runs 6 days a week... but then again he is Nick Willis.

He didn't win the gold medal because he only ran 6 days a week.

that was the point of the post you responded to, dummy.

* face palm *

If you're not taking a day off per week (even if you're elite) you're an idiot.

How do you expect to recover and get stronger if you never give your body a chance to relax? Schedule a day off once every week and if you're feeling sluggish, don't hesitate to take another one off. Trust me, you'll run faster.

sdfdf wrote:

* face palm *

If you're not taking a day off per week (even if you're elite) you're an idiot.

How do you expect to recover and get stronger if you never give your body a chance to relax? Schedule a day off once every week and if you're feeling sluggish, don't hesitate to take another one off. Trust me, you'll run faster.

* dick palm *

If you get up to a high enough level of training, an easy half hour is a day off for you.

nice reply bro

True, I've never been at an "elite" level. I run about a 15:00 for 5km, but for me taking a 30 minute run certainly isn't the same as taking a day off.

I think most elites would benefit from a day off .. maybe not once a week, but at least one every couple and they definitely need a light-easy day. I guess you're right though; that's not for me to say.

The point I'm trying to make to the poster is that he or she should be taking a day off. If you're posting on a letsrun forum, I'm assuming you're not elite, and you certainly are not at the level to be running 7 days a week.

Yes, and no one has EVER exaggerated how much they train in order to intimidate their opponents/show off.