I am a college runner and I just finished my XC season. My base began in early June and ran into the beginning of college, that being the end of August. Over the summer I increased my weekly mileage from 35 to 60 by the end, averaging about 56 per week for the summer. I would only double twice a week. My typical week looked like this: Sunday long run, Tuesday Fartlek, Thursday short fast tempo(5:30-5:40 pace for 3-4 miles), and Friday longer moderate tempo (5:50-6:10 pace for 5-8 miles), supplemented with easy runs, strides, and hill sprints.
I improved my strength and endurance substantially, something that I had been lacking my last year of high school.
I got to college and I was running well but by the middle of October I began to feel mentally burned out. Note I don't think it was truly physical, I still had the fitness, I was just getting mentally worn out from the workouts after investing my zeal into getting better from early June.
Right now is our short break between XC and the track seasons. I already feel rested mentally and am getting excited for running again and I have only taken 5 days off.
Here is what I am considering doing this next year in hopes of not burning out at the end of XC. After outdoors I will take 5-10 days off and then I will begin my summer training again, mimicking what I did last summer. Only this time I may do some road races at the end of July and then at the beginning of august I would take another 5-10 days off.
This would leave me about a week before school where I will do the usual easy running to get back into the swing of things.
So what I'm getting at here is; does taking a short break like that undermine the purpose of the base phase? I like to push myself a bit over the summer and I think the fitness benefits of doing this are a bit more substantial then a more passive base phase. But I'm young and inexperienced, so I'd love to see what you all have to say on this.
Thanks for taking the time to read this