By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. (Genesis: something)
God needed rest and so do runners.
No, we really do, all bibles aside runners need rest. With My ASICS I’m on four day a week plan but that’s the trick part of plans. We tend to view training as things we do, the kilometers we churn out. However, what I’ve been learning the last few months in Japan is that you can rest. You can run a marathon and have free time. Free time, yes!- see your kids, make dinner, catch up on 30 Rock, read a book, or indeed write a blog. Rest is a part of training.
Well how does that make any sense?
Gimme a sec and I’ll put on my running nerd hat (it’s black, with reflective piping, made from a low-static, high-wicking material and makes look like I have a half unrolled condom on my head).
Training sessions are stress sessions. They are controlled sets of exercise which should be done for a certain length of time and intensity to push you just enough over the edge to provoke your body into repairing the damage and throwing on another of ability for next time. That’s the training effect.
It’s a fairly dicey balance though. You can push too far- where you go over the edge and something at the back of your hip, thigh, foot or calf goes “snap”and you go “@#$@#$@!!!!!”. The other danger is the sneaky injury where you consistently push just a tiny bit too much and you end up at a physio with the “reduce mileage” speech and your marathon hopes start to evaporate.
So rest can help. Rest gives your body time to do the repair and for you to do some light body maintenance.
What about recovery runs?
Yes, though I never did them myself, I think they may work for some people. They don’t push you at all and so you’re body can still repair without incurring any extra damage. But they are not necessary and that’s good news to a bunch of people I think. Lots of people get hot and bothered on this topic.
Do nothing at all ? …..not quite
Well, if I’m running four days a week I should be doing a few other things which contribute to the training effect and reduce my chances of injury in the future.
The first thing is stretching to encourage flexibility and reduce muscle tightness. I throw in foam roller here hit tricky parts like the IT band which bugged me in the past. The second support is resistance training to build up major muscle groups involved in running.
That’s where I turn into lame runner. I like the running part, I like the rest, I like the stretching -I don’t like the resistance. I just haven’t figured out a way to make this either relaxing or fun. (I’m open to suggestions). There’s one more point though to training with My ASICS you have to…
…Make a commitment to running
The important, and for some difficult part of this training style is that you can’t cheat on running with other sports. You have to become a running monogamist. No long cycles, no lengths training at the pool, no footie, no tennis etc. You’re a runner and that’s it.
So there you have it running plus rest equals training.
I”m training but not running today but still off to stretch because the foam roller is giving me the “you don’t love me any more ” look.
Running round up:
To explain the graph below, the grey blocks are rest days. The green ones are runs. The darker the green the faster the run. The height of the green ones is proportionate to the length of the run. At the office we call this graph the grass -I like logging my runs just to make new bits of grass. Shallow but fun.
Great post. I’m a BIG believer in rest. A bit too much tho :) BTW, the training plan on MyAsics is great. I’ve started by half-marathon training with it today. Looking forward to seeing positive results from it.
In fact, what god did in the 7th day was running…. running away from what he did!! XD
I’ve just switched from a marathon plan on the old My Asics, to the new one, and I am a bit worried by the major differences between the two: the old plan would have me running 27km in two weeks’ time, whereas the new one only has me doing 12km!
If we look at my long runs in March the old plan was 32k/19k/32k/19k.
The new one is 12k/28k/32k/16k!
I am training for my first marathon and am confused: the old myasics plan did seem hardcore alright, but the new one seems a bit soft!
Hi Chris,
The new My ASICS has less mileage and depending on plan, can allow people to train less times per week than the old My ASICS.
However, all the plans do include periods of training which are intended to bring your effort level up and actively train you to run faster.
But I do think to go from 12 to 28 is a big jump. It would be good if you can use the “feedback” tab on the My ASICS site and tell us when you started the plan, how many weeks it is and when it ends. Then we can check if you are indeed getting a correct format plan.
I hope stick with us though and enjoy the training.
Hi Chris,
The new My ASICS has less mileage and depending on plan, can allow people to train less times per week than the old My ASICS.
However, all the plans do include periods of training which are intended to bring your effort level up and actively train you to run faster.
But I do think to go from 12 to 28 is a big jump. It would be good if you can use the “feedback” tab on the My ASICS site and tell us when you started the plan, how many weeks it is and when it ends. Then we can check if you are indeed getting a correct format plan.
I hope stick with us though and enjoy the training.
cool post, M! by the way, liz lemon is my hero