We are pleased to announce that as of March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor has been introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

RUNNERS! Rest Days - How Important?

jeda1231
jeda1231 Posts: 63 Member
edited January 20 in Fitness and Exercise
Hey everyone -

I am training for my first half marathon and have been following (roughly) Hal Higdon's training guide. The race in May 26th. My question is how important are REST days. I know two rest days (maybe a long walk or something) right before the race is essential but throughout the week what do you think? I am so self conscious about resting at all I always try to work SOME form of exercise in. I have now started lifting weights / doing squats, etc to strengthen --- do I need those rest days?!

yes - i am a little bit of an exercise junky! haha any advice would be great!

Replies

  • HMVOL7409
    HMVOL7409 Posts: 1,588 Member
    Train smarter, not harder. Rest days are very important, your muscles need time to recover. Also you can overtrain and risk injury especially when training for a distance race. Hal's program is successful for thousands of people for a reason.
  • Cyclink
    Cyclink Posts: 517 Member
    Think of it this way: your body adapts to the stresses you put on it when you are resting, not when you are training. Every time you train, you put a little more stress on the body and push the fatigue levels just a little higher.

    Even as much of a training nutcase as I am, my training and my rest are carefully measured.
  • RunnerElizabeth
    RunnerElizabeth Posts: 1,091 Member
    I made some modifications to hal's novice ii for my half coming up May 5 (not my first). I do Mon-strength, Tues & Wed run, Thurs-strength, Fri-run, Sat - Mommy & Me ballet for 45 mins and Sun-long run. Saturday would be closest to my rest day. The ballet class is usually minimal work for me, some stretching, twirling and galloping. It works for me and knock on wood, I have had no injury up to this point. My first 10 mile of this plan is sunday though and I plan on skipping my strength session on Monday to recover. The week before the race I plan on following the original plan to the letter so that my muscles are loose from a little running but rested. This works for me, you have to find what works for you. I would suggest if you are adding activity to rest days to start out with something low impact. Last year I only did yoga and dance based stretching on rest days and I think this actually helped my running.
  • iWaffle
    iWaffle Posts: 2,208 Member
    Think of it this way: your body adapts to the stresses you put on it when you are resting, not when you are training. Every time you train, you put a little more stress on the body and push the fatigue levels just a little higher.

    Even as much of a training nutcase as I am, my training and my rest are carefully measured.

    Exactly this. All exercise, strength training, cardio,etc. stresses your body and creates micro tears in the muscle. Your body needs some time to heal these injuries and when it does it builds them back stronger than before. That's what progress is.

    My current schedule I typically don't run on Monday or Friday. I might do some type of strength training on those days but I take the time to fully rest my legs and feet. It's necessary.
  • PurpleTina
    PurpleTina Posts: 390 Member
    as the others said, rest days are critical.

    I'm following a plan from Walk,Jog,Run for my first Half (now 16 days away, eek), and specifically chose it because it required cross-training days that fit with my weekly schedule. Some weeks only have one rest day, some have two; but I did my long run last week (10 miles), and so far have had no problems in sticking to the plan, as I do feel sufficiently recovered between running days.
  • jeda1231
    jeda1231 Posts: 63 Member
    thank you for the responses!

    I was starting a weight lifting program, running on the days designated by the plan, yoga, and kickboxing and I was BURNT OUT to say the least. i feel like the rest days will do me well and I tend to walk part of the way home from work on those days or, as others have said, that's when i'll do yoga but surprisingly that takes a lot out of your muscles by stretching them so much!

    good luck to all those in training!
This discussion has been closed.

Categories