I am going to start having two complete rest days a week and was wondering everyone’s opinion on taking them back to back or having them spread over the week??
2? why 2? if you have to have two, i would put them after a very hard day, eg long run or long bike maybe.
I would generally split them, train for a few days, rest, train again. Every few weeks might be a good idea to do them two days in a row to get a good rest.
I don’t think 1 is enough, I get too tired and fatigued after a couple of weeks of training. Ok sweet I guess I can try both ways and see how it goes, was just hoping someone with experience might be able to give some advice and what worked better for them??
I am not sure you are going to find many people on this board that take 2 days off a week consistently…not saying that isn’t the right move for you but experience with this approach is probably limited.
My point is it’s not one or the other. I have plenty of experience, been doing tris since 1989, 6 ironmans including Kona, 15+ half ironmans. Most of the time splitting the rest days is a good idea. Like the other guy above said, after a hard ride or run day. Every few weeks I am more likely to take them back to back.
But it’s not that simple. Let’s say you finish training at 9am one day, take a rest the next day, then train at 5pm on day 3. That’s 56 hours rest.
Let’s say you finish training at 7pm one day, rest the next day, then start training at 6am on day 3, that’s 35 hours rest. You might define both of these as 1 day rest, but they are very different.
So the answer I have is that it is not one or the other, it depends on how much training you have been doing and how much total rest you need, and how long the actual rest period is. That’s what works best for me.
not directly related to 2 consecutive days…i take rest days based on heart rate variability. ithlete and sweet beat are couple of choices. following hrv helped me avoid any deep holes. in addition to fatigue i think it helped me notice nutrition impacts too. in past i used morning hr to tell me when to rest. unfortunately i believe i was mistaken to believe i was improving health with declining morning rested hr. it may take you a little while to sync with these new tools but i found if i put ego aside i did seem to progress in training. this at age 65 where recuperative powers are not what they once were. good luck.
I think 1 rest day per week is more than enough and the need for 2 may require some deeper digger as to why? are you training at too high an intensity? how is your diet? are you getting enough sleep? any external factors contributing excessive stress?
“rest” day is relative depending on what type of training volume and intensity your doing. If you training 16+ hours per week and have a full time job and family, it’s more practical to have a light day of just 1 hour or so of training total, mostly zone 1. I probably have 1 other day in ther that’s only 2 hours, and mostly active recovery.
2 days completely off? Maybe if your training <8 hours per week. The problem I see is that the remaining days need to have longer or harder workouts and I also think that active recovery is better than doing nothing, unless you need the mental break. But to be sucessful in triathlon, you have to enjoy the journey as much or more than the racing. If you are dreading and unmotivated going into a workout, then you have a problem. You don’t need 2 days off a week, you need a coupel weeks off to clear your head, regroup, sit down and look at you goals, objectives and overall mission and what you’re trying ot get out of the sport, and what you want out of life. A little soul searching now and then is nessesary. IF you can;t find a good reason for doing this sport, then it’s time ot hang it up. Its’ can’t just be some compulsion.
A LOT of trathletes suffer from going too hard during active recovery, and there fore are unable to go hard enough to see optimal gains during harder workouts. The Easy, needs to be Easy and the Hard needs to be hard… or at least follow the plan your on (some phases of training in some plans have primarily just zone 1&2 workouts only) But the trick there is to use discipline and resist the urge to bang out tempo efforts if it’s not called for.
Just curious: if you take 2 days off each week, how many hard days and easy days will you do each week?
Also, do you periodize, so that every 2-3 weeks, you take 5 -7 easy / low volume days?
To answer the actual question. If you take 2 days, definitely split them. 2 days off in a row would mean that your training 5 days in a row, and 2 complete days off is more rest than you’ll need. In terms of a overall stress/training load, having 2 days off i na row would be digging a pretty deep hole by the 5th day. That’s a great way to get injured. Whatever you do, keep your longer or higher intensity runs following the rest days or you’ll be likely to get injured.
I’d ask what makes you need the 2nd rest day. If you were absolutely wanting 2 rest days, I’d break it down into 2 micro-cycles. For me, I like a Tue/Fri hard days. Of course with an age grouper, you likely will want to train on Sundays, so you may have to shift that to Wed/Sat.
What I would do is:
Mon-off
Tuesday-Base day in prep for hard day on Wed.
Wed- Hard Tempo day
Thur-Shorter recovery day
Fri-Off
Sat-Hard mid distance tempo day
Sun-Long Endurance Day
This allows you to have 2 “base” days, 2 hard days, and 1 long endurance day. I would do the longer endurance day after a harder day so that it allows you to take the endurance run just as that. Good steady long easy distance run. It’s not a “slow” run but an “easy” run. And there is a big difference between the two.
I think 1 rest day per week is more than enough and the need for 2 may require some deeper digger as to why? are you training at too high an intensity? how is your diet? are you getting enough sleep? any external factors contributing excessive stress?
Yep I think youre exactly right but still havent been able to narrow it down. Diet and sleep were the first things I put more effort into and some nlp stuff has helped with the stress. Yea maybe could train my easier days a little bit easier
Yea 1 should be heaps, I have hardly any commitments and know guys who work full time doing some light training on their rest days. Usually I can get a couple of weeks of consistent training in then get sick/fatigued/tired. I can still get some good results of really crap training so im happy to try anything to get some consistancy and the next thing is just more rest.
I take three days off EVERY week and spread them out. I always take one day off after my hardest day of the week but never two in a row off.
It works well for me and I have had some very good TTing results doing this, including a 52:53 40K this year and I am 46 years old.
Just curious: if you take 2 days off each week, how many hard days and easy days will you do each week?
Also, do you periodize, so that every 2-3 weeks, you take 5 -7 easy / low volume days?
Um hard days are usually when i feel good and easy days when I dont, I find it hard to plan ahead because never know what days Ill feel lke crap aand what days ill feel like going hard. When I run its usually always hard, either just slot into 4min pace for 50-70 mins or do some shorter tempo. Swims and bikes never usually that hard, maybe one tempo session on the bike.
Yep I take an easy week after 2-3 normal weeks but it isnt by choice, im usually sick or just really fatigued bu then
thanks for the help, ill try spreading the rest days out
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I don’t think 1 is enough, I get too tired and fatigued after a couple of weeks of training. Ok sweet I guess I can try both ways and see how it goes, was just hoping someone with experience might be able to give some advice and what worked better for them??
That fatigue is part of the training cycle, and is normal. If you feel all chipper and energetic for all your workouts, you’re not training hard enough.
If you’re considering 2 days off per week, I’ll venture to guess you’re not going to be one of those at risk of driving yourself into the ground with chronic overtraining at baseline.
Nothing wrong with 2 days off, but if you want to maximize performance, that’s probably more than you’ll need, meaning you’re giving up valuable training time that would otherwise improve you.
You might try an easy swim instead of one of the rest days. My legs usually feel great after swimming.
I don’t think 1 is enough, I get too tired and fatigued after a couple of weeks of training. Ok sweet I guess I can try both ways and see how it goes, was just hoping someone with experience might be able to give some advice and what worked better for them??
That fatigue is part of the training cycle, and is normal. If you feel all chipper and energetic for all your workouts, you’re not training hard enough.
If you’re considering 2 days off per week, I’ll venture to guess you’re not going to be one of those at risk of driving yourself into the ground with chronic overtraining at baseline.
Nothing wrong with 2 days off, but if you want to maximize performance, that’s probably more than you’ll need, meaning you’re giving up valuable training time that would otherwise improve you.
I know fatigue is part of the cycle and you shouldnt feel fresh all the time, i am meaning getting sick and not having the energy to do anything.
Hopefully doing this will maximize performance, having no consistency at the moment isnt helping me improve
Um hard days are usually when i feel good and easy days when I dont, I find it hard to plan ahead because never know what days Ill feel lke crap aand what days ill feel like going hard. When I run its usually always hard, either just slot into 4min pace for 50-70 mins or do some shorter tempo. Swims and bikes never usually that hard, maybe one tempo session on the bike.
Yep I take an easy week after 2-3 normal weeks but it isnt by choice, im usually sick or just really fatigued bu then
Hmmm - two thoughts - one is that you have too many hard days and not enough easy days - but that can be very individual - now that I’m older, a hard day followed by 2 easy days seems to work for me to avoid getting sick, but that’s just me.
The other thought is an armchair diagnosis you may explore to see if your symptoms may fall into the criteria for myalgic encephalomyelitis:
From wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_descriptions_of_chronic_fatigue_syndrome#2011_.27international_consensus_criteria.27_for_ME
The main symptom is “post-exertional neuroimmune exhaustion” (PENE) i.e. low stamina, rapid fatigability, symptom exacerbation, and variable onset with prolonged recovery; which is also accompanied by symptoms from neurological, immune/gastro-intestinal/genitourinary, and energy metabolism/transport impairment categories, and at least a 50% reduction in activity which is described as “mild”
The criteria: