I'm going to be a junior next year in high school, and I'm about to start a summer training program with about 50 miles per week, mostly at an easy pace. My question is, would it be more beneficial to take one day per week off of running, or run every day?
take a day off but make your miles count
Take an "off" day: If you feel healthy. Run 5ish miles a minute slower than training pace.
If you feel some pain/soreness: swim/bike/pool run
If youre a mid distance guy: lift
Saturday hill long run, Sunday rest day. Mon-Fri easy runs.
Even Bernard Lagat takes every Sunday off and he's the fastest American in history. Nick Willis won an Olympic silver and rests once a week. When Lukas Verzbicas was tearing it up in HS he rested every Sunday. Resting is better than a short 5 mile run. It's called a "Rest day" so why would you want to do a short run instead? Doing anything on your rest day defeats the whole concept of a rest day.
NotAustin18 wrote:
Resting is better than a short 5 mile run. It's called a "Rest day" so why would you want to do a short run instead? Doing anything on your rest day defeats the whole concept of a rest day.
While I disagree with it defeating the whole purpose, for the OP's purposes, I recommend Sundays off same as everyone else here. But rest is also based on perspective, so for some, 5 miles easy is a very effective rest that still gets the blood flowing. Keep Sundays off for now, maybe next summer with more years and more miles, you can gradually add in Sunday runs and it still be a rest day.
I like to do off every 2 weeks or just tell myself Ill take off when I NEED to and just run every day, this way Im not thinking too hard, that usually works out to 2-3 rest days a month
Having ramped mileage up stupidly in the past, my advice is to not stick religiously to a schedule. Listen to your body. If you feel like you need to take a day off then do it. Run whenever you feel good which means doubles and sunday runs. Just make sure you don't sacrifice quality for the sake of quantity. I definitely agree with the idea of cross training on the days you do take off. A bike ride will feel good and give you some aerobic work without straining your legs.
Also worth noting, it doesn't have to be black and white. You aren't limited to all Sundays off or run every day. Leo Manzano takes a rest day once every 3 weeks. Some people do stuff like that. If you want the best of both worlds do that.