[AMESH]

AMESH on May 28, 2010 at 12:48 pm #16767

While I pretty much adhere to the 3-4 weeks at least before you begin any kind of training, I have a question as to what constitutes rest and how much I have gotten. My conference meet took place three weeks ago (May 8-9). I then participated in a meet the following weekend where I ran a 4×1. Leading up to this meet I didn’t do any workouts. I basically stretched and took it easy. My question is does the week of nothing and one race count as training or can that be added to my post-season rest? If so, could I start lifting June 1st? My lifting leading up to the conference meet was light OLs for two weeks and nothing the week of the meet.Ideally, I am trying to take about 6 weeks off of running and about 4 from lifting. So even if I started lifting i wouldn’t be running again until Mid June.

I’m just trying to gauge how close I am to those marks because I’m getting that itch that all athletes get when they don’t do anything.

[AddictedToSpeed]

AddictedToSpeed on May 28, 2010 at 1:01 pm #98614

if its a mentality issue, just go hang out with some friends or see a movie, play recreational sports or something, you should be mentally tired after the season, and just think a break will do you good and that your getting mental prep for training for the next season

for me especially, i had to get over the fact that a little rest wont kill you but will do you good, if your training hard 35-40 weeks a year then you’ll make a lot of improvements either way

just my opinion

[trackspeedboy]

trackspeedboy on May 28, 2010 at 1:36 pm #98615

dont worry too much about dates and counting days. Just take some time off, a month or so and just chill out.

[Mike Young]

Mike Young on May 31, 2010 at 12:31 pm #98738

4 weeks off from running and 6 weeks from lifting is a little on the long side if you’re not doing anything else.

At the conclusion of a yearly plan, I like to see my athletes take 2 weeks completely off and then do 1-3 weeks of unstructured physical activity on there own. The guideline for the 1-3 weeks of unstructured training is to avoid anything we’d done during the training year but to do some form of activity for 3-5 hours a week.

We also take 3-7 days off (depending on how extensive the schedule was) following the conclusion of the indoor season.

ELITETRACK Founder

[trackspeedboy]

trackspeedboy on May 31, 2010 at 1:59 pm #98743

4 weeks off from running and 6 weeks from lifting is a little on the long side if you’re not doing anything else.

At the conclusion of a yearly plan, I like to see my athletes take 2 weeks completely off and then do 1-3 weeks of unstructured physical activity on there own. The guideline for the 1-3 weeks of unstructured training is to avoid anything we’d done during the training year but to do some form of activity for 3-5 hours a week.

We also take 3-7 days off (depending on how extensive the schedule was) following the conclusion of the indoor season.

what you think of doing some bodybuilding? maybe even limiting it to the upper body if trying to give the legs some more rest.

[Jay Turner]

Jay Turner on May 31, 2010 at 2:51 pm #98746

4 weeks off from running and 6 weeks from lifting is a little on the long side if you’re not doing anything else.

At the conclusion of a yearly plan, I like to see my athletes take 2 weeks completely off and then do 1-3 weeks of unstructured physical activity on there own. The guideline for the 1-3 weeks of unstructured training is to avoid anything we’d done during the training year but to do some form of activity for 3-5 hours a week.

We also take 3-7 days off (depending on how extensive the schedule was) following the conclusion of the indoor season.

Mike,

I have a girl (just finishing her junior year of high school) who just finished up a yearly plan. I was planning on starting her back up full go on Monday, July 19th. She just started her two weeks of complete rest. She’s also a basketball player, so would it be a good idea if during the three weeks after her complete rest her and I play some pickup basketball? What are some other options for those runners who don’t play basketball?

[Mike Young]

Mike Young on May 31, 2010 at 10:14 pm #98752

[quote author="Mike Young" date="1275289294"]4 weeks off from running and 6 weeks from lifting is a little on the long side if you’re not doing anything else.

At the conclusion of a yearly plan, I like to see my athletes take 2 weeks completely off and then do 1-3 weeks of unstructured physical activity on there own. The guideline for the 1-3 weeks of unstructured training is to avoid anything we’d done during the training year but to do some form of activity for 3-5 hours a week.

We also take 3-7 days off (depending on how extensive the schedule was) following the conclusion of the indoor season.

what you think of doing some bodybuilding? maybe even limiting it to the upper body if trying to give the legs some more rest.[/quote]That’s actually about the only form of resistance training other than bodyweight activities that I think is ok during the transition period.

ELITETRACK Founder

[Mike Young]

Mike Young on May 31, 2010 at 10:16 pm #98753

[quote author="Mike Young" date="1275289294"]4 weeks off from running and 6 weeks from lifting is a little on the long side if you’re not doing anything else.

At the conclusion of a yearly plan, I like to see my athletes take 2 weeks completely off and then do 1-3 weeks of unstructured physical activity on there own. The guideline for the 1-3 weeks of unstructured training is to avoid anything we’d done during the training year but to do some form of activity for 3-5 hours a week.

We also take 3-7 days off (depending on how extensive the schedule was) following the conclusion of the indoor season.

Mike,

I have a girl (just finishing her junior year of high school) who just finished up a yearly plan. I was planning on starting her back up full go on Monday, July 19th. She just started her two weeks of complete rest. She’s also a basketball player, so would it be a good idea if during the three weeks after her complete rest her and I play some pickup basketball? What are some other options for those runners who don’t play basketball?[/quote]2 weeks off is probably ok. One of the guidelines I use is that the athlete should be dying to resume training after the rest period. While there are certainly exceptions, this seems to ensure that they’re physiologically and psychologically recharged.

ELITETRACK Founder

[Jay Turner]

Jay Turner on June 1, 2010 at 7:28 am #98778

[quote author="Jay Turner" date="1275297736"][quote author="Mike Young" date="1275289294"]4 weeks off from running and 6 weeks from lifting is a little on the long side if you’re not doing anything else.

At the conclusion of a yearly plan, I like to see my athletes take 2 weeks completely off and then do 1-3 weeks of unstructured physical activity on there own. The guideline for the 1-3 weeks of unstructured training is to avoid anything we’d done during the training year but to do some form of activity for 3-5 hours a week.

We also take 3-7 days off (depending on how extensive the schedule was) following the conclusion of the indoor season.

Mike,

I have a girl (just finishing her junior year of high school) who just finished up a yearly plan. I was planning on starting her back up full go on Monday, July 19th. She just started her two weeks of complete rest. She’s also a basketball player, so would it be a good idea if during the three weeks after her complete rest her and I play some pickup basketball? What are some other options for those runners who don’t play basketball?[/quote]2 weeks off is probably ok. One of the guidelines I use is that the athlete should be dying to resume training after the rest period. While there are certainly exceptions, this seems to ensure that they’re physiologically and psychologically recharged.[/quote]Well I wont have to worry about that. She’s so fired up for next season she doesn’t wanna take the two weeks off! I actually had to force her to do it!

But like I said, I also told her that after the two weeks off, maybe we could go to the rec center and play some low-intensity pickup basketball games 2-3 times a week for three weeks. Is this wise?

[Mike Young]

Mike Young on June 1, 2010 at 11:27 am #98796

Well I wont have to worry about that. She’s so fired up for next season she doesn’t wanna take the two weeks off! I actually had to force her to do it!

But like I said, I also told her that after the two weeks off, maybe we could go to the rec center and play some low-intensity pickup basketball games 2-3 times a week for three weeks. Is this wise?

That’s what I’d do. The ones that are really eager to get going are often times the ones who will benefit the most from a forced layoff of moderate lengths.

ELITETRACK Founder

[Zach Batcho]

Zach Batcho on June 2, 2010 at 4:09 pm #98865

When I was working with some decathletes awhile ago the longest I could get them to take off was 4 days. So in their case I told them to take a month and a half and look good for the beach (body build and practice volleyball and ultimate frisbee). It worked out really well because they were ready to train once the season started and made some great initial adaptations to the training.

[Jay Turner]

Jay Turner on June 10, 2010 at 7:48 am #99142

When I was working with some decathletes awhile ago the longest I could get them to take off was 4 days. So in their case I told them to take a month and a half and look good for the beach (body build and practice volleyball and ultimate frisbee). It worked out really well because they were ready to train once the season started and made some great initial adaptations to the training.

The girl that I mentioned above that’s supposed to be taking 2 weeks off has been playing open gym basketball with the basketball team. I just found this out. I wanted her to take 2 weeks off with ABSOLUTELY no activity involved, THEN resume light activity (like basketball, core training, etc.). Is this a problem that she is still engaging in activities instead of complete rest after 1 calendar year of training?

[Zach Batcho]

Zach Batcho on June 10, 2010 at 2:38 pm #99157

[quote author="Zach Batcho" date="1275475175"]When I was working with some decathletes awhile ago the longest I could get them to take off was 4 days. So in their case I told them to take a month and a half and look good for the beach (body build and practice volleyball and ultimate frisbee). It worked out really well because they were ready to train once the season started and made some great initial adaptations to the training.

The girl that I mentioned above that’s supposed to be taking 2 weeks off has been playing open gym basketball with the basketball team. I just found this out. I wanted her to take 2 weeks off with ABSOLUTELY no activity involved, THEN resume light activity (like basketball, core training, etc.). Is this a problem that she is still engaging in activities instead of complere rest after 1 calendar year of training?[/quote]

The only time I could get my guys to take any real time off is by locking them in prison. I never found it to be an issue if they took a couple days off (at least 3) and did physical activity they enjoyed so they weren’t being mentally taxed. Just throw in an extra rest day or two throughout the summer and you should be fine with her. Not being in school for the summer allows for some good rest to happen naturally just from the reduced daily stress.

[Jay Turner]

Jay Turner on July 4, 2010 at 10:39 am #99921

What about rest after having a mini-peak during indoor? Would it be more beneficial to take a few days or maybe a week completely off, or would reducing training sessions to very light, low key activities for 2-3 weeks be better?

[Jay Turner]

Jay Turner on August 3, 2010 at 11:41 pm #100698

Anyone?

[Irish100m]

Irish100m on August 4, 2010 at 5:25 am #100706

Just depends on the athlete, last year I had a very long season where I competed in November for an (2008), two indoors in December, one in january, one in february, three in march, one early april (fucking Ireland!!) and then had a week off before competing again for outdoors, first comp late april. Competed up until ealry August. Went european juniors late July and when i came back i had an ankle injury, the pain went away a bit but i ran 11.6x and 11.5x into -2.5/3 (approx, cannot remember off top of head) head winds in early august and decided it was time to rest. i was physically and mentally jaded, hadnt felt up for it in the warm ups o those 2 races. Had exactly 4 weeks/28 days off of none or very little physicaly activity and came back very refreshed and raring to go

[Owen]

Owen on August 4, 2010 at 9:05 am #100713

What about rest after having a mini-peak during indoor? Would it be more beneficial to take a few days or maybe a week completely off, or would reducing training sessions to very light, low key activities for 2-3 weeks be better?

I would generally remove all heavy CNS work for approx 4 days. Continue with recovery type days. Such as Low intensity weightlifting circuits, bike / pool sessions. And then gradually introduce your outdoor plan in from there.

Obviously the time required depends on how long the indoor season was.

[Jay Turner]

Jay Turner on August 4, 2010 at 10:27 am #100715

[quote author="Jay Turner" date="1278220181"]What about rest after having a mini-peak during indoor? Would it be more beneficial to take a few days or maybe a week completely off, or would reducing training sessions to very light, low key activities for 2-3 weeks be better?

I would generally remove all heavy CNS work for approx 4 days. Continue with recovery type days. Such as Low intensity weightlifting circuits, bike / pool sessions. And then gradually introduce your outdoor plan in from there.

Obviously the time required depends on how long the indoor season was.[/quote]I’ll give you an example…

The indoor season starts in January (January 3, 2011 begins my SPP training). The first indoor meet is January 22nd. The Indoor State Meet is March 19, 2011. This means the indoor season lasts 10 weeks, and we run 3-4 indoor meets during this period. Thoughts on how long the recovery phase should be after the championship meet on March 19?