How much do you cut back on a "rest" week

i go by time mostly on biking and running, distance on swimming. When I am in a recovering week I cut back 30%, so that I am doing about 70% from the prior week. I keep all my intensities up, but instead I will lower the volume. IMO this is key as dropping volume lets your body rest more, and keeping the intensity maintains the fitness.

I just try and listen to my body, if I go into a rest week tired, a little beat up, and sore then I go much shorter.  If I am feeling good I will generally just back off the intensity and maybe shorten only my longest workouts.

I'm not a big fan of rest weeks.

I prefer consistent training that very gradually builds up. After doing 3/1 build/rest or 2/1 build/rest and often feeling fatigued and I did that build/rest type of training for 5 years. Last year I started with consistent training that helped me feel better and didn't fatigue me the same so I didn't take rest weeks often maybe one after a big race but only 2 or 3 rest weeks in 8 months. Build and rest for me meant one week I'd do 50 mile ride and 8 mile long run and next 65 and 10....then 25 and 5. Then 60 and 10 again....that fatigues me more than doing 50 and 8 for two weeks then 60 and 10 for two weeks, as I build my volume towards my longer races. I can get to a place where my volume stays pretty consistent for weeks at a time.

How do you feel? Are you tired? Is your body telling you, it needs more rest?

I also "try" to follow the 30% rule, but it's more on how I feel.  For me, rest weeks involve getting more sleep, so that means shorter workouts so I can go to bed earlier or stay in bed longer!  Listen to your body, but I think cutting a long run or doing a 3-4 miler instead might give your legs a chance to recover.

Substitute with lots of streching, rolling, maybe a massage!

Depends.  For instance, I try to pay attention to signs of overtraining...but I don't always listen.  Unless I'm tapering for a long race, though, I rarely rest all three disciplines in the same week.  I aim for a minimum of 7-8 hours a week, rarely do more than 11-12 hours outside of IM training.  Bike varies from about 50 miles to 100 miles/week, run from 14 to 32, swim from 3500 yards to 5500.

Edited by tcovert 2010-06-09 1:27 AM

I have felt like crap in my training lately.  Legs feel like lead, can't get in a good grove while running or biking.  I would definately say I need the rest.  I haven't taken a scheduled "easy" week in almost 2.5 months.  I have had a few weeks where I had to drop a run or bike due to travel/life.  But I've been trying to build very slowly with the biking and maintain my running.