There’s been some interesting discussion on the Tinman Forum (The Run Zone) regarding taking days off running. I’ve had some mixed ideas on this over the years, so the topic interests me. In high school, I always took one day off per week. Then in college, I took 1 day off every 21 days. Post-collegiately, I’ve slacked a bit more and taken a day or two off a week. Hmmm…I was slow in high school, then fast in college, and then slowed down post-collegiately…is there a trend here?

Tinman may say so. In his opinion days off are valid only when:

1. You are sick
2. You are injured
3. During planned rest breaks.

But during the real training season, days off act as mental crutch, and you don’t really need it. This mode of thought, by the way, mostly applies to highly competitive, elite, and aspiring-elite runners (ie - nerds). Normal people usually have too much of a life to run every day.

According to Tinman, downfalls to taking days off are:

1. Loss of blood volume
1. Loss of V02Max
2. Loss of efficiency
2. Diminished motor-neural and sensory awareness. You don’t realize you are pushing too hard when you return (all stocked full of glycogen).
3. You think you can push harder when you come back from resting, but this is not a good idea.
4. All this can make people more prone to injury (a paradox)

As Tinman puts it:

“Frequency of running is directly linked to efficiency. If you run more often, you improve your efficiency. You run along using less energy. You extend your stamina. You simply don’t get tired like you used to!”

To put it another way, in order to race faster, you must run more. If you take days off, you will not reach your true potential. It’s a personal choice, but when it comes down to it, it’s that simple!

These, by the way, are the paraphrased words of Tinman, but I think I’m agreeing with most of it. It makes sense to me…how may days off do you think elite runners like Alan Webb, Paul Tergat, or Meb take? (actually that would be an interesting set of stats…)

However, most of us have to take days regularly, whether it be because of religious convictions, unforgiving work schedules, or family committments…all very valid reasons. This is the real world, after all, and there is life beyond running. I should also note that many training programs or phases of programs demand scheduled days off (ie immediately after a marathon, coming back from injury, etc.)

But I’ve become convinced that for those of us who do not have obstacles to running every day…we should! After being on a 6-day/week for several months, I’m now easing back into my 21 days on, 1 day off routine. It’s going pretty well. The key is to make sure your easy days are easy. Now, rather than taking my day off, I’ll just do a lower-volume run (4-8 miles) at a slow pace, and just let my body relax and unwind. Even a 2-mile jog is better than nothing, and will allow the body “active rest”. I am no more tired than before, I’m still injury-free, and training (and racing!) is going quite well. I hope to hit my true potential someday, and this may be one element of that puzzle.

This is obviously a fairly controversial subject among runners. Feel free to disagree with me, just explain why!

I have to admit, I’m starting to get a little bit antsy. It has been about 9 months since I’ve ran a real race, but I still have a good 5 weeks until my first scheduled race (Striders Series 5K). The upside is that this gestation period has enabled me to shake my injury bugs and to develop a big base. The downside is that I’m sick of winter and sick of building base. As Cody put it the other day in his training blog, “Just another day, blah.”

But here’s the thing: despite my impatience, the longer I hold off racing and the longer I build base, the stronger and faster I will be in the long run. When I do run that first 5K on Feb 10, it will probably be my best season racing debut in many many years. For that matter, it will be the first real 5K I’ve ran in shape since Draper Days in July, 2004. This is my first year since college I’ve actually taken the time to build a big base before doing any sort of race! Most years I’ll go ahead and run the Canyonlands Half Marathon after just a couple months of running 30-40 miles/week. In fact, last year I was back to racing again just a few weeks after I resumed running after a three-month layoff. Sure, I told myself that I would “hold back” and treat the races like “workouts”, but I just can’t do that in reality. I was lying to myself; I’m way too competitive to hold back. Having a good base this year will give me the freedom to deliberately let loose from the get-go.

So yes, I will continue unabated with the base-building and set my eyes on long-term success, not instant gratification. To keep things more mentally (and physically) interesting, I’ve started throwing in a “Tinman Tempo” once week, added 100m striders a few days a week, and intend to start doing some CV fartleks in a couple weeks. These three workout types are part of Tinman’s base program, and should greatly increase aerobic fitness during base training. My mileage this week will be 53 on 6 days, plus some elliptical training. I’ll hit 60 miles/week (on 6 days) in a couple weeks, and by the time I race, I will have been in the mid-60s for several weeks. Not a huge base volume by the standards of many, but I think the key for base is not just volume, but also time. The longer one keeps at it and runs consistent, steady mileage, the faster they will be at the end of the base period, even without doing speedwork. This is what I’ve experienced in the past, and is what I anticipate experiencing this winter and spring. Yes, I’m itching to race pretty bad, but I’m looking forward even more to injury-free, strong running over the next full year.