Rest Days?

I don't think you need to completely rest on your rest days.  In fact, I thought I read somewhere that some activity promoted recovery. 

I personally build in a rest day a week because of my family and work schedules. Otherwise, I wouldn't.

personally i have found for me that my training/racing goes best with a rest day every 10-18 days or so. your mileage may vary.

I plan on taking a full day off each week in preparation for my HIM.  For sanity's sake as much as for my body.

I take one rest day per week.  I have found that my body needs it. 

depends on background but i have found after 10 days i need a full rest day.  what works best though is 1 day per week. 

its one day i can completely relax without going to BT and checking out the planned workout.

x2....exactly as I have found.

Steve

It depends..

I took a rest day every week for 5 years then this last year didn't take one on a scheduled system and actually worked better. I probably took a rest day every few weeks but mostly due to life/travel or the like or after a race.  I do better with consistency rather than building volume then dropping it down on rest weeks in a 3/1 or 2/1 manner.

Listen to your body and adapt based on what you hear your body telling you.

For me a swim after hard workout day is nice and makes my body feel better. Often after hard bike or run, I feel better after the next time I do same sport.

I came into this from a running background as well.  The good and the bad of the tri training is that there is always a sport you can train.  Unlike running, the other two sports are virtually limitless with respect to the amount of time you can put in without beating yourself up too much.  How much you train kind of boils down to your goals and how much time you can commit.  I personally take rest days when I need em.  I don't schedule them, but there are times when I can tell I have overstressed my aerobic system - workout quality deteriorates so I will take a day or even two off.  I also take them when my "real life" schedule conflicts with my workout schedule.  Example, I travel fairly often and try to ramp up my volume so that when I am out of town it coincides with my needing the rest. 

On the other hand, you just have to find what works best for you.  I do know many who do take a day a week off.

Welcome to BT nad the crazy world of triathlon.

My 26 week IM plan has 5 scheduled rest days which I like.  I don't want rest days in my training plan, because like RC said, life, work, travel gets in the way at times and I am "forced" to take a rest day.  If I had a rest day in my plan, say, once per week, I would end up losing other days on top of that one and have too many rest days.

I do like the cutback weeks though.  It helps with my mental attitude.

Plus, you could do some core work, foam rolling, yoga, etc on a rest day and still be working on yourself.

I should clarify...for training days, I only include S, B, R & Strength.  If I do yoga or play Wii Fit with my kids, I don't count that. 

(Note: The only exception is when I shoveled snow for 5+ hours.  I gave myself 2 hours of strength for that!)

5 hours in Virginia!  I lived in Va when the 35+ incher went up the eastern seaboard.  Won't forget that one!  I would count it too! 

I usually take a scheduled day off each week, usually after a day in which I did three disciplines. It helps me physically and mentally.

X2

I take a day off when I feel like I need to. Usually every couple weeks or so. I find I don't need one every week. I will throw some lower intensity stuff in here and there and follow my instincts. Now that you mention it, it's been a little over 2 weeks so I'll probably take one some time this week maybe.

Edited by acumenjay 2010-01-02 11:51 AM

Much the same as other..only been at this for a couple of months and seem to be happy to just take a day every 10-12 days. For example..planned to go for a ride this morning..got up at 4:30am..my eyes wouldn't open and it was raining so rest day just happened. A friend wanted to go for a swim and I declined..decided 100% rest day today!

January through March, sort of ... I take rest days when work or work travel wipes out my training plan. Otherwise I am trying to plan something nearly every day, especialy now that I am working in 1-2X strength training per week.

During race season, April - September, I usually rest on Monday ... but I usually walk nine after after work on Monday once Daylight Savings Time kicks in.

errrr 9 holes, not miles. Some of you tri-savages probably walk 9 miles on your rest days.

OP, your blog is pretty dadgum upbeat. Props.

Edited by jsselle 2010-01-02 8:41 PM

Do you have that to that you feel guilty when you're not training? At present we have terrible weather in Europe, running means running the risk to break your legs slipping on ice. So rest days come more often than I wish they would. Yet, I decided not to worry too much about it, it's training it's not a diet! So, I train when I can, and when I don't I build stamina for when I will be able to. So, I'd say listen to your body, keep to your training program, and rest when you feel like it, and enjoy it as much as you can. H.

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Most of the plans I've seen have one day a week of nothing. They also say that can be shifted around if necessary.
What I end up doing is shifting swimming around a bit so it's only M, W, F and I end up with a swim-only day rather than a full day off. That works well for me as a "rest day"

I think you need rest days for lots of reasons including not getting burned out.

Personally, I take two because I'm old and creaky and I need that many.  I also subscribe to a training philosophy of 3 days on, 1 day off where you workout HARD for three days and take the 4th day off entirely. Well, modified for the fact that weeks have 7 days ... so I take Monday and Friday off, do 4-5 workouts on Tues-Thurs. and 3-4 on Sat.-Sun.