Rest days/week

You could probably find a couple half hours to sneek in a run or two. It will make you feel better. Rest days are cool. I take a lot of them but I don't like to take more than three days off in a row.

I am no expert, but I think taking a "rest week" off has more to do with how much you have trained prior to a rest week? Like, if you've been training very hardcore, then a rest week might be beneficial to your training, actually, but if you haven't been, then it may sort of interrupt your training...however, some things in life come first, especially concerning family. Maybe if you can squeeze in at least getting some pushups, situps, etc. (i.e. things you can do relatively easily in your home without interrupting your other responsibilities) you might feel better about taking the week off from training?

Sometime a week off is the best thing for you.

Thanks for all the advise. I think I am just feeling like if I don't run, I will forget how. There is a 5k this Sunday I would like to run. Maybe I will hit the gym after work for a short treadmill run.

OK,
I did 6 days of rest, I went to the Y yesterday and had a very good run on treadmill ( 29m 13s 3.00 miles 9m 44s/mile) and a very good swim in pool (52m 53s 1760.00 yards 3m /100 yards). I do feel that 6 days may have been too much, but, I did come back stronger.
Joe

I tend to agree with maintaining the schedule but just decreasing the load.....I don't feel its ever a good idea to just take a week off..........however.........I am not a doctor, and I could be mistaken.

I have not intentionally taken a full week off yet, mostly because I am concerned that if I do inertia will set in. (5 days becomes 7 days becomes 10 days etc....) I did take an unintentional 6 day break due to illness a while back. I came back stronger, but felt like I had not trained for a month.

I do take one rest day every week. Otherwise I tend to take 2 day breaks from training when I am feeling fatigued. I find that to be a perfect break for me. Allows my body time to recoup without that feeling of being away from the sport too long.

All of that being said, I am doing my firt sprint tri in a month. I intend to taper the week before (any suggestions for a taper plan would be appreciated) and may take a week off after. Depends on how I feel, and how much I am itching to get back to training.

Bill

My previous two races both came during recovery weeks on my training schedule. This means that I was going to step down from the usual 9 workouts/10-12 hours to 6 workouts and 5 or so hours. All my workouts were at laughably easy pace, and I did a swim, bike and a run each of the first three days of the week, then took Thursday off. Friday, the day before the race, I did a 15 minute bike ride and a one mile run just to make sure everything was working well. Both races, I seemed to have a complete store of energy, and no residual soreness or stiffness to start.

However, this week, I have another race, and it is not a recovery week. My plan is to progress the first four days this week as though it were a regular week. That means 6 workouts in 4 days, 2 of each. Plan is to run 60 minutes twice, ride 90 minutes twice and swim 60 minutes twice. (It should be noted that the swim time is time in the pool, not active swimming time...) Then take Friday off and do the same day-before-race workout on Saturday. I'll let you know how it goes...