Rest After Season

i generally take a week completely off and then a week of unscheduled running with no watch. this works well for me, but i know some people who take off much longer or not at all and that seems to work for them.

2 weeks if someone is feeling incredibly beat after a hard season.

Even more if they have some nagging injury that isn't gone after 2 weeks.

But someone who's coming off the XC season feeling good, ready to go, probably only a week.

i didnt rest b4 last years xc season after my outdoor track season and ran like shit; but this year i thook 10 days off after track and was running awesome in xc by the time mid season rolled around

at least 2 weeks maybe 3 with the third week being unscheduled easy jogging.

This is very situational based on how the athlete feels the day the rest begins.

I also do two peaks a year (my College team views Indoor & Outdoor as one season, there is no break in training between seasons unless it is absolutely necessary) and time off is pretty important to look at, because if everything goes right, you only get to take time off twice a year.

For a person who finished the season feeling very strong, continued to improve every meet and workout, but didn't make the postseason (usually sophomores and juniors) the least time is taken off, as little as 5-6 days. Following that normal training can begin. For most athletes they will reach a new peak mileage this off season.

For a person who finished the season feeling beaten up, and didn't race or workout well as the season progressed, the most time is taken off, as much as two weeks, unless there is an injury, then more time, based on what the injury is. A slower build up is used as they return from the longer time up, they typically come back at a low mileage and spend the off season building continuously. These athletes may not make it back to their peak mileage before the season, and might use the following season to continue building mileage, with less emphasis on racing and working out, although that applies primarily for athletes with significant injuries they sustained the previous season.

For a person who ran in the postseason (Conference, Regional, National) A minimum of 7 days is usually taken off, no matter how good they feel, and the first week back is usually fairly light, as little as 50-60% of their normal mileage, from there they train the same way anyone else would, based on how they felt at the season's close.

So at one extreme, there is a kid who might not get back up to his in season mileage until some time during the next season, several months later, on the other hand, a kid might be running his mid season mileage a week after his last race.

During my best year (All-American at XC Nationals and 13:50 5k in outdoor track) I took no rest between seasons and just did easy runs around 6:30 pace for a while.

The amount of rest depends on how hard the person was training, how exhausted/rested he feels, and what his goals are.

If you cross country training is mostly aerobic, volume then a week or two of easy running with a few days off should be sufficient, but if you pounded a bunch of hard workouts with lots of anaerobic training like most runners, then maybe two weeks off or one week off is healthy.

Most elite runners who basically compete from March to September may take a month off. Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, many Kenyans all did this, no running. But they had like 6 months to get in shape.

I believe that for younger runners with smart training there is no need to take much time off, more of a mental thing than physical. Injury problems would require some weeks off, or if the runner has a tendency to push too hard in training they should take more time off.

Last example: Lydiard: he was not a proponent of long breaks from running, so he had his guys jog 4 miles every other day for a few weeks. The goal is to keep the body used to running so you don't lose form and fitness while recovering form the last season.

If you are "beat up" at the end of the season, you have a bigger problem than how much time to take off.

You should be the freshest and most rested when you are running the biggest meets at the end of the year.

You can be mentally fatigued so that is the time to just run untimed miles for a couple weeks. No need to take a bunch of time off.

Like others have said, up to the individual, AND it depends by what you mean by "time off".

Too me that means no hard workouts. So yeah a week to 10 days w/o running, then start easy running, something totally unstructured and "goal-less"- just a daily run of X miles. I always appreciated the mental as well as the physical break, I think it's a good practice.

no more than 2 or 3 days, usually none, you've already rested to peak. Once you peak, you just need to recover from that last race or 2. Why would you take a week or more off, when you've already cut down mileage. Just run, short, easy runs for a week.