I take my rest days seriously. I probably take them too serious and have too many of them. My typical week of running looks something like this:Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 12 mile long run into work
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday- 4.5 mile hill workFriday - 4.12 mile easy run
Saturday - Rest
Sunday - 10-20 mile long run
This can vary I may do a long run on the Friday instead of Sunday but generally the last month has been following the above.
I understand that not only does your body need to recover ie. Muscle repair, but also your Immune System becomes depressed. Pounding trails over 30 - 35 miles is going to have some effect on my joints and last year I suffered from quite a bad Achilles Injury, so I'm probably over cautious with my recovery.
When you read up on this topic, most advice is to try to get at least a day's rest into your weekly schedule, but I think I benefit personally from the 3 days I allow myself. I guess everyones different or maybe I'm having too much rest?
I know I could certainly infill with Cross Training on my rest days, I'm determined to get more Core Training in also. But the beauty about having these rest days is it keeps me fresh and looking forward to my next run, it's quite satisfying to enjoy the rest day following a 20 mile run.
I would be interested in any ones thoughts on this subject and in particular my current weekly schedule.
I guess everyone is different. The professional advice is sound to stay in peak condition, but as I'm not going out to break any records it's not so important for me! I believe that most people know their own body and are able to know when to take a day off and when to put extra mileage in. If it feels right do it, if it feels wrong then don't. The main thing is to enjoy it!
ReplyDeletei need rest days too, this is my biggest gripe with jan|une-athon, it just doesnt work for those people doing long runs. the body needs time to recover. I tend to have saturdays as a proper rest day. on mondays i tend not to run, i'll do a spin session instead and friday is a very light recovery jog.
ReplyDeletewithout the sat rest i struggle
Like others have said its what works best for yourself that counts. From my point of view though your schedule looks completely fine (its very similar to my schedule when I'm marathon training).
ReplyDeleteOutside of the running world, I've upped my cross-training this year and think its had an improvement on my running ability. Swimming 3 times per week, and attempting to get out on my bike as well. Although I'm cautious about doing too much in cross training and err on the side of caution when working out.