Rest days

billyhead

I am training for the New York Marathon and was just wondering how many rest days would other people training for marathons take per week. I have felt very sluggish/tired and unmotivated to run lately with the usual body aches and was thinking of taking a few days rest. Would this impact severely on my training. Also should you normally take a rest day the day after you run your long run i.e of at least 20 miles.

Cheers

Abhainn

hello billyhead,

personnally I always take a rest day after a long run and two more during the remainder of the week
After a 21 miler on Sun I took yesterday off and will only do 3 miles today.
So this week will look like

Sun - 21 miles
Mon - Rest
Tues - 3 miles
Wed -Rest
Thur - 6 miles
Fri - 6 miles
Sat - Rest
Sun - 14 / 16 miles

Some people do cross training the day after long runs but I can only see that as been a light session as the body would be tried after those long exertions. If you are feeling tired take an extra days rest. Worst thing now would be to get injured by doing too much.

Good luck!

gar_29

Heya billy,

train less than you think you should... definately take at least a day off after the long run, it would serve no purpose. listen to your body; if you feel sluggish, take the night off, because running when not up to it will at best be useless, or at worst risk injury. if you feel that rough, take a week or two off; it takes much longer than that to lose any fitness, unless you're international level! new york is close enough that you can afford to really scale back the training and still put in a good time.

i recently did a 175 mile race, only training twice a week, and rarely over 20 miles. too many people worry about schedules without listening to themselves.

for marathons i tend to keep it to 10-15 miles tops, but when you train, be totally committed, especially mentally. the physical side will follow.

Wheelworx

Gar did you do a 175 mile running race??????
Rob

gar_29

Wheelworx wrote:

Gar did you do a 175 mile running race??????
Rob

yeah - stage racing though, not in one go!! 6 days, up to 55 miles in one day, your food and equipment on your back.

keeps me out of trouble!

--amadeus--

gar_29 wrote:

yeah - stage racing though, not in one go!! 6 days, up to 55 miles in one day, your food and equipment on your back.

Cool - which one, MdS?

Friend of mine did that last year and said it was pretty brutal.

Wheelworx

I thought triathletes were nuts
I have been running with these
http://ultrarunners.wordpress.com/
guys on a Wed night, a lot of them have done mds and a group are doing the Gobi desert one next year. There is quite a few ultra runners in Dubin it seems.
Rob

Odysseus

gar_29 wrote: »

keeps me out of trouble!

Funny I tell people the same myself. It nice to see a few other ultra runners here, it reminds you that you aren't the only nut job out there:)

gar_29

nope, not the mds, it was the marathon of britain. the mds is a bit too big now, there's almost no self-navigation, it's just a big line of people stretching to the horizon. the MOB is way smaller, 50 people or so, much better. if you want the temperatures of the mds, but with more sand, try the trans-aquitaine, bordeaux to biarritz. best of all, there's no two year wait list and it's a sixth of the price!!!