Hi All - So I just finished up my 2nd full year of my streak (12/29/14) and moving into the third year I feel like I'm ready to do some actual training.  In addition to running, I am really into cycling.  I started racing in 2015 and I currently race USAC Cat 3.   Training for that I'm sure is what allowed me PR in every distance up to 10 miles while only averaging about 10 miles a week.  10 miles was my max race distance because anything greater than that would require a training plan and more than 1-2 miles a day.

Recently, all it took was for a friend to point out that if I actually trained for running I could run a lot faster to get me interested in training for another marathon.  At the same time, I was looking to replace my cycling coach and I ended up finding one that coach me in both sports.  Unfortunately during our first discussion the first agenda item and the one that took up the majority of our call was his opinion that I was going to have to give up the streak in order to fully realize my potential because I'm never allowing my body to completely rest.  I tried to explain to him that when I do these minimum runs, I'm not really looking at them as athletic training.  It's more just like something I do, like eating and sleeping.  I am not sure, but my instinct is that a 1 mile run is hardly enough to ruin a "rest day."  Perhaps it's harder to say that for a 2 mile run.  He really wasn't buying it.

Just wondering if any of you have run into this before and have any words of advice about combating the anti-streak types, particularly coaches?

Thanks,

Teresa

I once read an article by an ultramarathoner who ran every day and a lot of miles.  He quoted (and I guess I am paraphrasing here) "If you run slow enough, you never need to have a recovery day".

And that is how I have always treated my 1 mile days.  When I first started my streak, I was working with a coach who wanted me to have one complete rest day a week.  I explained that I was also starting a running stread (I was only about two weeks into the streak when I hired him) and told him that on my rest days I was going to do one REALLY slow mile and that was it.  He was not happy at first but was okay with it and understood that it was important to me.

Having just completed 9 years of streaking, and having gotten many PRs in that 9 years, I can tell you that I honestly believe that those 1 mile days for my "off days" is really useful.  I think that the little bit of effort put in really loosens up the muscles and there have been plenty of studies that have shown that short slow runs on recovery days are actually beneficial to help the body recover faster.

Just make sure that you are taking those rest days really easy - much slower than your normal easy runs.  Some days I had the tendency to say "its only a mile" and I would crank through it and regret it the next day.

Best of luck.  Hope this helps.

Jeff

Update!   I managed to maintain my streak, stay injury free (well, running-injury free), and finish the Houston Marathon yesterday!   My original goal was 3:55, but early on in the training cycle I had an inkling we hadn't started early enough nor did we have enough focus on developing speed.  Add some ill-timed sickness and a broken toe from falling down the stairs in December, and, well, I finished in 4:15:50.  Still a 31 minute improvement from my first marathon 11 years ago.  And they say you get slower with age.  Ha.  I ran the entire race, even through the water stops (while taking both gatorade and water and only spilling like half on myself!), despite the wheels slowly starting to come off at mile 9.  It looked like I'd be able to hold 9:30s or less avg after that until the overpass in mile 12 and from there it was a steady positive split situation.  Whenever my thoughts would drift to how far I had to go, I'd force myself back into the mile I was in, one foot in front of the other, running from water stop to water stop (every 1.5mi).  The race also had signs at every mi and km as well as timing strips at every 5k so it made breaking it into chunks a lot easier.  *Just don't stop* I kept thinking.  I kept passing the people who had stopped to walk the water stops and struggle to restart and I recalled the 2007 Marine Corps Marathon where I stopped just to rest for a bit and it was the beginning of the end of my 4:10 dreams.  Probably the biggest motivator to not stopping to walk was the knowledge that even if I did, it would not bring any relief.  Walking would hurt just as much by that point and would just extend the suffering. The race was not as flat as advertised, at least in the last 10k. I mean, there are no "hills" but in those last 6 miles there were about 5-7 underpasses with longish sweeping descents and ascents totaling about 90% of the total ~240 ft in elevation. The ascents actually felt good to use some different muscles.  Thank goodness the guy at the pace group booth the day before told me about this so I didn't have to combat the WTH angry thoughts as I encountered them.  Instead I just thought, ugh, another one?!  haha  Especially the one in the 25th mile, I mean, come on.

Now I just have to find my way to getting day 1,114 done without hurting myself. 

Arguing that a rest day can't include a short run seems silly to me.

When I was doing 3 miles per day minimum, some time in the past, I was running more volume than I am now, and a short 3 mile run often felt like a rest to me.