Last week I ran a little less than half of my usual mileage and took 4 days off completely (not all in a row), for a few reasons.
1) It was the busiest week of the year at work, with high fatigue and stress from being there all day, every day.
2) Training had reached a point where it seemed tedious, roughly halfway through my 4th consecutive marathon cycle.
Today's LR felt great, a huge relief from the heavy legs and the "this sucks" attitude that had been cropping up.
I'm going after a couple lofty goals towards the end of the month with a good chance of failure, and am worried that the lazy week may have sabotaged those goals. On the other hand, the week of rest might allow me to now do higher quality training although maybe not in time to make the difference.
Thoughts on big cutbacks?
I think they can help, esp. in the situations you just described. You might consider your "lazy week" an early or extended taper, esp. if you goals are in a few weeks.
Good luck.
I do take end of season downtime, but that doesn't seem to be what you're asking about.
During the spring, right in the middle of my 5k/10k training, I ended up taking a week completely off (actually it ended up being about 10 out of 14 days). Training started to feel like a chore, and I kept saying I'll get back at it tomorrow. Well, it took me a while and the first workout back sucked, so much so that I considered DNSing my first race. But it all came together and it ended up being a nice mental reset for me. I ended up resetting my PRs from 5k-half marathon in a big way, but obviously that was more about the training rather than the time off. The point is, with only 4 days off, you're not screwed.
Mine are usually a result of life getting in the way, not planned. I manage to get by none the less, and even when you miss a major workout, you can spin it in a positive light...most times that is.
Mentally, cutback weeks are like falling backwards on a hot day into a cold pool of Nestea. That's the Nestea plunge for those of you who were in diapers at the time.
Are we there, yet?
I'm taking one now and may take a second. I was pushing too hard to follow my training plan exactly running some of the long, hard workouts at race effort to do so. It finally caught up with me.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
Whoa! I literally was in diapers!
Everyone needs both a physical and a mental break on occasion.
Short term goal: 17:59 5K
Mid term goal: 2:54:59 marathon
Long term goal: To say I've been a runner half my life. (I started running at age 45).
Hip Redux
All of my weeks are cut back weeks.
5K Specialist
My last run was June 28th. It will be interesting to see how that affects my first couple weeks back.
Personal Bests:
800M - 2:38 (5/28/13) | 1 Mile -5:54 (5/28/13) | 3K - 11:55 (12/29/12) | 2M - 13:00 (12/1/12) | 5K - 20:00 (4/12/13) | 13.1M - 1:37:24 (2/3/13)
I do them once or twice a year. I usually take advantage of a vacation and take as many days off as I can. It refreshes the body and the mind.
Damaris
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Skirt Runner
I took 4 of them in May.... I think I only ran 5 times the whole month. My IT band was acting up, I got sick, I was changing jobs..... I just needed a break physically and mentally. I eased back into running regularly the first week of June and then had a really strong last 3 weeks, able to tolerate a higher weekly mileage than ever before without my body protesting. I think the time off running kind of helped me refresh and reset.
PRs: 5K- 28:16 (5/5/13) 10K- 1:00:13 (10/27/13) 4M- 41:43 (9/7/13) 15K- 1:34:25 (8/17/13) 10M- 1:56:30 (4/6/14) HM- 2:20:16 (4/13/14) Full- 5:55:33 (11/1/15)
I started a blog about running :) Check it out if you care to
Super B****
The only time I ever plan a BIG cutback is the week after a half. I hate it. But I hated it even more when my legs hurt for weeks because I didn't do that, so it's the lesser of two evils, I guess.
chasing the impossible
because i never shut up ... i blog
Trail Monster
I dropped a lot of mileage the week after All Stars for the mileage game. I was just done. Now I'm dealing with the aches and crankiness and looking forward to taper. I think it's close enough that gutting out another week or two is the right thing to do.
2013 races:
3/17 Shamrock Marathon
4/20 North Coast 24 Hour
7/27 Burning RIver 100M
8/24 Baker 50M
10/5 Oil Creek (distance to be determined)
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Healed Hammy
Obviously I am not of the caliber of a runner that you are Jay, but clearly your body will benefit from the rest. Look at it this way -- you already took the cutback, so it is behind you. Don't 2nd guess yourself (which is what the title of the thread seems like you are doing) and forge ahead. You will never know one way or another. Perhaps the same question in the main forum where there are more accomplished runners will get a more informed response, I say - don't sweat it.
Even though you train hard and have goals......you are not a professional runner. When training / running become too much of a chore, or life happens, you will miss some runs. No biggie.