Junior in high school, just wrapped up the state meet today. Curious how long you guys break before beginning your running again? I'm going to Nike Cross Regionals in two weeks and I want to keep most my fitness for that, but I do feel I need a break because the legs are shot. Couple days off and back at it?
The first Nike regionals are almost three weeks away (Nov 14-15), so you've got plenty of time. Even if you took a week off, it wouldn't affect your fitness. So, just take it easy for a few days. Maybe a couple off, then a couple of easy recovery runs. You'll know when you're ready to get back at it.
take 3-4 days off for this. After your XC season really ends, then take a 2 week break
DO NOT TAKE 3 or 4 days off now and DO NOT TAKE TWO WEEKS OFF AFTER THE SEASON.
On all of those days go for a one mile run at about 7:30 pace if you run 18:XX or under maybe 8:XX if you only run 21:00 and then do some light strides and some jogging until you have covered another mile. Do not be tempted to do more than 2 miles on ANY of these days. DO NOT let the fact that you feel better when you start back to real training convince you that can jump right to your full load.
That's just stupid.