Forums >General Running>Need to take a break
After 3 months of heavy miles and a number of races, I feel the need to take a short break and only run a couple times a week. I have have nothing big planned until the last weekend in March with a5 miler on Sat & a Half Marathon on Sunday. My question to the group is - How long can my light run weeks last before I start losing speed and endurance?
an amazing likeness
I expect it will be a very individual decay, and strongly related to underlying base running fitness. Someone who's banging out 50-60-70 mile weeks will have a different 1/2-life than another person at 20-30 mile weeks.
My personal experience as a 40-50 mi/week old guy is that running fitness fades strongly after about 7-10 light days, aerobic fitness fades more slowly. At about 2 weeks of full off-time, I'm back to close to starting over and will need to use run/walk to get miles building.
Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.
Heavy miles is a personal matter. I would suggest at least 3-4 days of week of lighter running ... easy effort to maintain as much as you can.
Long dead ... But my stench lingers !
Waltons ThreadLord
My nephew told me his college cross country coach mandates a week of no running after their season, followed by a week of very light running, and he suggested that to me. I replied that he was only 20 and since I was more than twice his age, I would not be able to jump right back into running the way he will.
5k 23:48.45 (3/22); 4M 31:26 (2/22); 5M 38:55 (11/23); 10k 49:24 (10/22); 10M 1:29:33 (2/24); Half 1:48:32 (10/22); Marathon 4:29:58 (11/23)Upcoming races: Running is Back 10k, 5/12; Greta's Run 5k, 5/19
Regardless of how much fitness you'll lose, if your body is telling you to take a break, take a break. I didn't listen to mine and had to deal with overtraining syndrome and got more of a break than I bargained for. I had a week where I ran only 3 miles, then about 10, then 20, and gradually worked my way back to 60 mpw over 6 weeks. I waited another few weeks to add speedwork. It sucked at first, but a month after adding back speedwork I ran a half marathon PR. I think the break did wonders for me physically and mentally. I came back hungry and ready to train. Now I am building in a 2-week break after marathons. I swim and ride my bike for up to an hour but no running.
I agree with this. 3x a week is better than 2x for "maintenance" running especially if you are an older runner. Keep a couple of faster bits in there (e.g. strides) if you want to keep any kind of speed base and don't want to completely shock your system come Springtime.
"Shut up Legs!" Jens Voigt
SMART Approach
Don't worry, you don't lose it that fast. You are still running. We all need some down time or an off season so to speak. You may perform better in Spring by taking 4-6 weeks of backing off a bit. My suggestion would be to do striders one of those days and finish a bit faster the last 1/2 mile to 1 mile on a run to keep some life in your legs. If this is a goal race in late March, you will be just fine if you start your training plan back up in early January. It wouldn't hurt to mix in a couple days of biking or elliptical during these next 4-6 weeks. You can do some hard intervals on these cross training days to keep your heart adapted to faster training without the pounding of running. I love the Air Dyne for these days as you can flat out go 100% intensity for intervals and me spent without beating up your body.
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