Clickbaity headline. And some clickbaity phraseology in the content.

But reading it it's not that unreasonable, other than being a bit rambling and unnecessarily caustic and self-righteous in tone. It just seems to be saying that mentality that you can't take a day off is the issue. Not the notion that you have to take a day off. Which are different things.

Like you could pack your same training schedule into 6 days, have an off day, and probably arrive at mostly the same place.

Arriving at (generally) no day offs in a well-considered plan is fine...having a "religous" feeling that a day off is when your competition is out there on a run getting better than you...that sort of fetishization of no days off is worth some critcism. Better tone of criticism would have been helpful.

Yeah,if all triathletes were training 30 hrs a week then sure overtraining is a thing and recovery needs to be worked into the program. If someone is like the vast majority of triathletes who only put in 10 hrs a week then what exactly do they need to recover from? I have always laughed at the thought that average age groupers "need" recovery runs and rides.

Sounds about as right as my Garmin which wants me to take a day off everyday because of excessive load.

I'm a firm believer that overtraining can hit at any workload, and is a function of % increase, not total load. And basic training principles like overload and recovery don't suddenly only start applying once you hit 30 hours.

If you're working out 10 hours per week and suddenly jump to 15, you can get into deep trouble. Just like someone jumping from 20 to 30 hours can get into deep trouble.

The "only elites have to worry about overtraining" is, I think, a complete myth.

I believe most/all triathletes should take a day off per week.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

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Yeah but if you do a 2hr workout in the morning one day and a two hour workout in the evening the next day then you have actually had more than a "day off" physically training. Now the mental aspect is a different discussion.

I actually agree with a lot of what the article is saying. Though I don’t agree that everyone should be taking 1 day off a week or even that’s what the article is suggesting.

This seems targeted for those folks who are obsessed with exercise and don’t have balance. They take pride in never or seldomly taking a day off. They don’t know what to do with themselves if they do take a day off as a lot of their self worth is tied to exercise/training. They cringe at the fact their training peaks CTL is dropping after a day off or even during taper leading into an A race. They think CTL is a measure of fitness. They tout their year end Strava training numbers on social media of 360+ days of activities. They train through sickness and injuries because they can’t fathom taking a day off.

I think some can find short term success if they happen to exhibit the above behaviors but over the long haul, it catches up to them. It’s really an unhealthy relationship with exercise/training IMO.

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blog

as a general rule, anything I read from outside.com (or their sub brands) I tend to ignore. I’d suggest you do the same

Haha, I am on the 14 workouts per week lifestyle. Two workouts per day, just because for my work I am in meeting rooms and at a computer. If I was working construction or farming I would certainly need time to "not move" but as my rest of my life is relatively motionless, I just need to move....has nothing to do with training. I will go crazy on any day where I just don't move. Its as simple as that. Lifestyle works out to roughly 2 hrs per week on weekdays, 3-4 hrs per day on weekends 7 days per week. I am 58 and have no obligations other than office stuff and my wife prefers if I am on the move vs invading her space for too many hrs per day!!!

This is the correct take, and IMO makes even more sense when viewed from a publisher like Outstide(TM)

You can basically say that people training 30h/w aren't reading this website. <1%. Who is Outside's market? It's people nervous about doing their first race, or people who have done and do races at a participant but not exclusively competitive level. People who would be turned off by articles saying "You probably need to train more". People don't like their views to be challenged. Telling the masses that they can train less and get the same results is A+ way to keep them coming to you for more ways to train less and still (purportedly) get better results. I'd love an article telling me Pop-Tarts are the optimal training fuel, science be damned.

?? Whatever manifest you're - I assume sarcastically - espousing, I think must have intended to be in reply to someone else. Nothing to do with my post.

God took a day off.

i think there's "days off" and then there's "days off."

i was super ill before xmas last year, and lots of gaps in my training. but so far this year, i've trained every day. HOWEVER, many of those days - like last night - consisted of a 30-minute trainer ride at easy/IM pace. my wife's out of town, i'm solo parenting, i had a handful of chores to do, and had to coach a track practice, and i was pretty tired. so i jumped on after dinner and did an easy half hour.

day off? kind of.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

The article is unfortunately a lot of clickbait.
It says some good things but also has a lot of black or white pointless stuff.

I've done periods with no fixed rest day and periods always taking a specific day of the week (Monday) off.
I've found a fixed day off holds me back more. With that setup I may end up taking rest days when I'm fresh and then struggle to cram more training in less time.

It's definitely possible to not have fixed rest days and then take easy or rest days when needed.

I'm not aware of anyone who argues to never take a day off training even if you're tired.

In fairness I'm not aware of any physiological reason for a weekly schedule.
A weekly schedule is a result of society and culture and an arbitrary division of moon phases in ancient times.

I've found an easy day is very often good enough for recovery from a hard day but occasionally I need a full rest day.

Curious since I didn't read it, who specifically is the article talking about?

Since everything is situational dependent and individual preferences/needs varry dramatically, I'm curious who the individual is that they are discussing.

Also, curious how this individual defines improvement/performance?
Since we all have very, very different ways of measuring success that certainly impacts of this strategy holds this individual back.



P.s. general summation of my point. I am sick and tired of blanket statements and people in our sport/world ascribing their beliefs, world views and goals to other people!!
You are not them. They are not you.

Outside has some good feature content, but you have to know who to look for

https://authory.com/...4e13a46a31e8f2313040

There's no way that I'd take any training adobe from them - they're like Runners World, but with more photos of mountains & trees

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

"All generalizations are false, including this one" - Mark Twain

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

It's interesting that both of the photos they used in the link are women

What? Men don't need rest days? Women need rest days more than men? More women will read the link then men will?

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Every year a few friends and family (not triathletes) will announce they are doing RED January. I try to push them towards a more sustainable proper running plan (which would almost certainly give them better results!). However the more extreme nature is definitely a draw, and likely to get them more likes on social media I suspect.

Quite a few get injured (hardly surprising as most have no run base). More miss a day and then quit as they have "failed". Of the few that do get to the end most stop running straight after - a combination of psychological burnout "I can't wait for this month to be over so I don't have to run again" and no obvious progression.

From my triathlon friends a few train every day. Most are doing 10-15 hours a week so there's no real need to be out there everyday, it would be easy enough to move things around and free up a day. I do think it's more psychological than anything else, they are not at a level where they can't create sufficient stress for training adaptation in just 6 days.

I think trying to compare "normal people" to pros is problematic. Pros are genetic outliers with years of huge training volume. They can recover much quicker because they don't have many additional stressors like a 9-5 job which contribute to overall stress recovery ("overtraining" may actually be better described as being unable to recover - actual training load is just part of the equation).

On that note I've heard one coach suggesting getting up at 5am after a poor night's sleep to do a pre work training session is akin to stepping over dollars to pick up quarters. The extra sleep would have been more beneficial in the long term. I've also heard the suggestion that the triathlete cramming a ton of TSS into their weekends is digging a hole they spend most of the week trying to recover from. A more balanced daily load is much better - again a huge benefit for pros and perhaps why so many training programs have monday as a rest day.

As for the suggestion I can just recover doing "easy days". Perhaps, but if your day is that easy you can recover are you really making any physiological gains? For example I've heard <100w cycling as a goal for active recovery, and even then there seems to be very little evidence active recovery is any better than complete rest

Never heard of that before, I had to look it up

https://join.redjanuary.com/about

Seems interesting but probably not sustainable, especially if someone is starting from zero, as is the likely case

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One think about the 100/100 Challenge is that by January 1st, we're already pretty well into it (no matter which start date we chose 😉) so it doesn't carry that "New Year = New Me" bullshit with it

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

My training hours have dropped considerably since the covid. Before hand, when I was in the thick of it, I purposely took a day off. I called this day "Wife Day". It was typically on Sunday so we could do things as a couple and maintain a high quality relationship. Many times, we did chores together (yard work, grocery shopping, wine touring... Ya know- chores). When I didn't have Wife Day, she would complain that I never had time for her because I was always training. That reduced dramatically after it was implemented. Sometimes my body needed it the off day. Sometimes it didn't. But, I'm still happily married.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

Pop-Tarts are actually a good fast refueling snack. I would not try to eat them on the bike but afterwards they are fine with 75-80% of cal from carbs. They are also relatively cheap if you buy the Kroger's version. :)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Pop Tarts are a part of my pre and post workout/race fueling.

Ya, I eat them sometimes but switch them out with other stuff to keep it interesting. :)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."