Thursday, December 4, 2014

Be Thankful for the Off Weeks

Well I'm a week late but I figure it's still worth posting what I'm thankful for.  And that is OFF WEEKS!!!  I have been putting in a lot of work over the past couple of months and taking a week to allow my body to reset is necessary from time to time.

Last week (Thanksgiving) was one of those weeks.  Leading up to that week of training, I could feel that my body and legs were a little tired.  But a lot of times I am able to shake it off and get over the hump.  Monday's workout didn't go very well, which always bothers me.  I knew it was time to rest up instead of trudging along for the rest of the week.  So after discussing it with Coach Gags, we decided to take it easy the rest of the week.  Instead of doing the customary three workouts we switched it to two workouts and cut back my weekly mileage by about 10 miles.

Man oh man, that did wonders for me!  By the end of the week I was feeling like myself again.  It wasn't a huge adjustment, but just enough to help out.  This week has been going incredibly well so far and my progression is back on track.

My piece of advice for athletes of any skill level, take a down week every once in a while.  Communicate with your coach and work it into your schedule appropriately.  Sometimes we push our bodies extremely hard for an extended period of time and don't give it the proper rest that it needs.  Believe me, every professional athletes has been there.  Don't let your competitiveness overshadow smart training.  You can come back stronger than ever with just a little rest!

Here is my training from the past two weeks!  Feel free to reach out to me directly at mikeruttrunning@gmail.com!  Thank you everyone!

Week of November 17-23
Monday
10x1000m
Weightlifting session
Mileage: 12
Tuesday
6 mile recovery run
Wednesday
AM 6 mile cutdown pace run
PM Weightlifting session
6x150m hills
Mileage: 15.5
Thursday
8 mile recovery run
Friday
2x(800, 3x400) @mile pace
Weightlifting session
Mileage: 9
Saturday
15 mile long run
Sunday
5.5 mile run
 Total Mileage - 70

Week of November 24-30
Monday
6x1600
Tuesday
6 mile run
Wednesday
8 mile run
Thursday
4 mile tempo run
Friday
14 mile long run
Saturday
6 mile recovery run
Sunday
6 mile recovery run
Total Mileage - 60