Do you take complete rest days with no running? Is it essential?

This thread is an example of LRC going downhill. Why can't we return to the days of the sub 1:50 of sub 3:45 1500 threads where people put in serious answers, not "My old coach once said I should have a day off but this guy on youtube said this but my training partner thinks this".

It is individual for everyone. It also depends on the time of year, what you're training for, where in your training cycles you are, stress in other parts of your life.

FWIW, because anecdotal evidence is so important, here is a summary of my recovery in my annual program. I've run 3:42 and 1:48, so there are people on better programs with more talent out there, but it works well enough for me.

September: 2 weeks completely off, although an "active" lifestyle - I'll go hiking with friends, play some football, go to the beach, go for a ride. There's no excuse to be a slob.

2 weeks of unstructured jogging. Anywhere from 30 minutes to 90 minutes, literally whatever I feel like doing, all based on feel, just enjoying running again. A few strides etc. after runs to make sure the right muscles are firing.

October - December: Build phase. I work my way up from 70 miles per week to about 100 mpw during this phase. I'll have every 2nd or 3rd Friday off, mostly depending on how the body is managing the increase in miles. Week between Christmas & New Years, I'll back off to about 50-60 miles with 1-2 days off.

January - March: I don't take any days off in this period unless I feel VERY run down (remember, an aspect of training is running under fatigue and making the body adapt), or I have a niggle or flu. I run three hard workouts per week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday). Friday is my recovery day, where I do a 45 - 60 minute job with NO GPS. Usually around 100mpw.

April: Start adding some speed training. I take Friday off every 2-3 weeks depending a lot on how the achilles are handling the faster stuff. I no longer want to be going into session as tired as what I was earlier in the year, so recovery runs can be made shorter/slower depending on how I feel.

May - August: Race season. No days off, but Monday becomes a recovery day as well with just a 30 minute jog, and Friday recovery run decreases to 30-45 minutes. I still do drills and strides after these runs to maintain my stride and feel for running.

I hope that answers your question, although there isn't really an answer to your question. Get a long term coach, and trust they understand when and where you need recovery days. The answer is not simple if you are even remotely serious and have training phases in your program.

This is the schedule that I have hit upon over the years. I must say that if there is a spell of good weather I will get out every day just for the vitamin D hit, but will take it very easy on some of those days.

Gonna hop on the everybody is different, listen to your body train.

I will add that you need to find the right training plan for you. I find if I vary my training with hills, intervals at different lengths, sprints and lifting, I'm injury proof and feel much better at the same mileage compared to even doing all easy runs. I'm actually guessing an average person would do better with this kind of plan as well.

Old thread, but good topic, so I'll hop on.

I used to think I needed complete days off, for rest. During the early COVID lockdowns of 2020, I started a daily running streak, out of boredom. Now I'm over 500 days into it and I'm so used to running every day, I don't need an entire day off. The closest I'll come is a day where I run only 1-3 miles, very slow if it's race/taper week, or if feel like like another hard day could start an injury. After a day like that I feel just as rested as if I didn't run at all.

I feel better if I run at least a little bit every day and I've gotten used to running first thing in the am when I wake up, so I've kept it going. The result is I've been able to build to a weekly mileage I previously thought impossible for me (70-75 mpw) and set some PRs.

Gggggg wrote:

Do you sometimes take complete days off with no running? Is it essential? I saw some clip with a guy that says it is a must in order to develop speed and explosiveness in running. How often also do you take it, and how many days off? One, two, three? A whole week?

Having no rest day during a week is just a training mistake. Let others do them.

If you train every day your brain sees the daily routine and gets bored. And this is just a matter of time. If you rest one day you get hungry to run again.

Second, if you rest a day your body has time to heal and recovery. There are small damages which you do not realize. Thats why sleeping is still the best recovery.

Third, cycling pros have often 1 day off per week. And cycling is not so hard for the body.

We get better on rest days, between training.

I always took a day off a week and boy did I catch it from my running friends.

I think that’s why I’m still able to train in year 46 of training.

I ran between 2500 and 3000 miles for decades ( over 3000 a few)

Now at 65, I still do 2000 miles a year and take a day off every 14th day....

My first injury wasn’t until I was 52 years old but it was a doozy of an injury ... cancer was the worst injury and I only got 1300 in that year

The days off may have hurt my racing though..

I remember a buddy screaming at me on the phone in the 80’s saying “ a day off every week is 52 days a year not running”!!!!!! Ha

Maybe he was right. Thanks for this thread

Gggggg wrote:

Do you sometimes take complete days off with no running? Is it essential? I saw some clip with a guy that says it is a must in order to develop speed and explosiveness in running. How often also do you take it, and how many days off? One, two, three? A whole week?

A complete rest day is not a must for most runners. At some point, easy running is like taking a brisk walk, so there isn’t a physiological reason in the absence of injury or illness to take a complete rest day.

I like to do at least an easy run every day. It also helps build appetite and keeps me eating twice a day and pooping happily on a daily basis. But various reasons like injuries, weather, work, travel etc. steal running days here and there and sometimes entire weeks, so a planned downtime is not strictly necessary for recreational runners, say, defined as under 50 mpw. Even beyond that, whether and when to rest is more a question of intensity than mileage.

Taking a week or two off every season has psychological benefits that may translate to performance gains. Just like people like to take a break from their regular work life and go on vacation and come back recharged. Most runners also report hitting a peak during a season and then declining towards the end, so there must be a more direct physiological benefit to taking a couple weeks off as well. Again, complete rest is probably little different from doing very light running even while technically on a break.

Last year I experimented with limited rest. I took five days off in four months. I wound up fatigued and running reduced km. Now I'm taking one or two days off every two weeks and running longer runs and feeling much better (this week I did two 150 minute runs). For me the rest day is helping. I'm 50 and with a strong build for a runner. I haven't missed more than a day or two due to injury in many years.

I've been uninjured for 2 years and run almost every day sometimes twice.

My mileage is low.

Regarding rest, my fastest times have all come after a week's break for holidays.

It just gave me a pop in my legs and removed the accumulated muscle fatigue.

So yes, in my opinion it is undoubtedly beneficial.

Thanks for this post.

Thanks for the https://www.google.com

Robert E . Lee wrote:

I always took a day off a week and boy did I catch it from my running friends.

I think that’s why I’m still able to train in year 46 of training.

I ran between 2500 and 3000 miles for decades ( over 3000 a few)

Now at 65, I still do 2000 miles a year and take a day off every 14th day....

My first injury wasn’t until I was 52 years old but it was a doozy of an injury ... cancer was the worst injury and I only got 1300 in that year

The days off may have hurt my racing though..

I remember a buddy screaming at me on the phone in the 80’s saying “ a day off every week is 52 days a year not running”!!!!!! Ha

Maybe he was right. Thanks for this thread

Same here. I've pretty much always taken one full day off from running and have had nearly no injuries, aside from one related to tripping. Mentally it's nice to know that I have one full day off and don't need to worry about running that day. If I have excess time/energy, I'll go for a brisk 3-mile walk or do 45 mins of very easy peddling on the exercise bike while watching TV.

I have to have many days off otherwise I get completely fried and have no energy in my legs.

I run two or three times a week. Lift one or two times. Swim once most weeks, then hike, surf and/or ride bikes on the weekends.

Sometimes I run on the weekends, especially if there's a race I want to run, in which case I'll run three or four times a week heading into it.

I'm nearly 60.

mentally i need 2 days off per week. keeps running enjoyable. im not trying to run fast anymore anyway.

When I was in my 20's and 30's I seldom took days off (maybe once every 30-40 days) but now at 48 I take every Momday off. I'm not sure if I need it, I haven't been injured in a long time but it is nice having a scheduled off day. I run about 60 miles each week spread out over the remaining 6 days. I think the day off gives me a bit of a mental boost and I always look forward to the start of a new running week after taking a day off.

I take days off all the time now. I'm not a competitive runner anymore. No more two a day runs. Those days in college are long over.

During now 7 years as an online running coach almost every runner I coached take one day off every week to reload energy "batteries" 100%. . I myself did my personal bests with the same one day off per week.It's not just energy loading but also mental recovery.