![]() It could be after a goal race or during a time of year when the weather is worst (hello, February in New England!). Ideally, you would skip a forced layoff and have a designated rest period in mind. Straining your calf may sideline you in the short-term, but three weeks later you feel better rested and more energetic than before. Sometimes these periods happen against our will, like in the case of an injury or illness. There comes a point where the body needs a true recovery, a chance to rest and consolidate all the gains of the previous training. You can’t just keep getting better and better and better ad infinitum. The problem is that it’s not a perfectly linear system. With the harder sessions triggering hormonal responses (think: growth hormone), down time allows your body to handle necessary repairs and improve your fitness. Generally, when we talk about sufficient rest from running, we are talking about getting off the feet as much as possible and running easily between hard workouts. Running shorter, faster reps will make you more proficient at speed. If you rest sufficiently in between hard sessions, your body will not only adapt to the workload but increase your fitness specific to the ways you challenged it. Through a pretty incredible process called supercompensation, the body responds to stress (like a long run or hard workout) by going above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to making repairs. Have you ever heard the adage that improvements in fitness are only made when resting? It’s true. It also begs a big question: How do you take an extended break from running but still manage to improve the next training cycle? Resting wouldn’t be such an interesting phenomenon except that it seems to go against so much of what we practice in the use-it-or-lose-it United States. ![]() The physical labor of planting crops or fixing up things around the shamba may replace running for those who have been training far from home. Others enjoy less structure, running if and when the mood strikes. Some elites don’t run a step for a month, six weeks, or more. This is how the best runners in the world train 11 months out of the year. Mileage ranging from 80 to 140 per week is common, and it will feature a steady blend of fartleks, track sessions, hills and long runs, all at a lung-searing altitude of almost 8,000 feet. Most will add on a recovery run in the afternoon a select few may even do a third. They put their longest miles in early, when temperatures are best and traffic is minimal. Before the sun even rises in Iten-a small village in the Rift Valley that attracts elites and aspiring elites in droves-hundreds of men and women can be found jogging the dirt roads that extend in every direction from town. Kenya is home to some of the fastest, most dedicated runners in the world.
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