Things looked a little different this week during my workouts. If you remember, Wednesday I announced I would be backing off my running a bit to support my husband who is dealing with some really painful hip issues.

We are still hoping that it will only be a short recovery period. The good news is we don’t believe it is a fracture, the bad news is we really don’t know what it is.  Hopefully we will gain some more answers.

 

Yesterday we headed to the gym with a long bike ride to do.  We came prepared with our iPads and iPhones to help pass the time a bit.

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Before we left Wes told me to download the iPhone app QuizUp.

The great thing about the game is that you can challenge each other. We decided we would play trivia while we were doing our Saturday spinning.  The time FLEW by and we had a blast doing it.

Needless to say since Wes kept choosing the “medical” category, I won a total of about 2-3 games. 

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We got in a total of 1 hour and 40 minutes and it felt like it went by in no time. That never happens. 

 

Here is what this week looked like:

Monday (1/27)

Run: 5 miles

Walk: 16 minutes

Strength Training: 15 minutes

 

Tuesday (1/28)

Run: 4 miles

Walk: 22 minutes

Strength Training: 15 minutes

 

Wednesday (1/29)

Bike: 90 minutes

 

Thursday (1/30)

Bike: 90 minutes

Walk: 20 minutes

Strength Training: 15 minutes

 

Friday (1/31)

Bike: 50 minutes

 

Saturday (2/1)

Bike: 1 hour 40 minutes

Pool Running: 1 hour

 

Sunday (2/2)

Rest

 

Weekly Training

 

Weekly Training Summary

Run – 9 miles

Bike – 135 miles (woah!)

Walk – 1 mile

 

Definitely a little different from last week, but I am OK with that.  I’ve really enjoyed being able to spend extra time with my husband and cross train.  Even though I’d much rather see him heal up quickly and be back running!  This time also allows my body to recover from 3 solid weeks of running. Nothing bad can come from giving your legs a bit of a break.

 

I came across this article while doing some research on what elite runners do during the “off season.” Wes had also mentioned to me that he had read several of them actually takes 2-3 weeks off completely from running.

It all depends on the athlete of course, but many of them will take 2-3 weeks in their off season and just cross train.  It gives their bodies time to recover.

“There’s an interesting phenomenon that occurs among the best runners in the world.  They don’t exactly know when they’re ready to come back from their offseason break, so they simply wait until they are bored.  Their breaks could be as short as 10 days, or as long as a month.  For mod elite athletes, the offseason break consists of one week of nothing, one to two weeks of cross-training and some light GSM…and then it’s back to running.”

My husband takes a lot of hope in this. It isn’t his off season, but if elite runners can take 2-3 weeks off, cross train, and get back on course so can he.  

It got me thinking though about my training. YES, I know I am not an elite runner (or ANYWHERE close) but once I get back into training would there be benefit in running hard for an extended amount of time, and then every 6 months or so taking 2 weeks off and cross train.  The time off could not only reduce my risk of injury, but also help give your body a break and let me focus on some of the things that many of us simply don’t have time for during training.

 

I’m off to get some major things done today. Plan for the week ahead, clean, do laundry, and basically get myself ready for the crazy week ahead!

 

So tell me, what are your thoughts?

Do you ever take extended periods of time off (days or weeks) to recuperate and recover?

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