Resting, having fun, and improving

It sounds too good to be true: resting, having fun, and still improving your form! In fact, every now and then, for short periods, it seems that this is actually what it takes to become a better runner. I have been hearing and reading about this for a while, and I decided to test it during this Christmas break. Some call it a "seasonal break"; the idea is to have a couple of weeks' break from running, and it is supposed to improve your form. If you are running and training not more than 3-4 times a week, then you are getting enough rest between your sessions. In this case, a seasonal break is probably not what you need to improve your form, but it might still be useful for gathering motivation and inspiration.

Let us first review what resting does for you. When you train hard, either strength training or running, you tear and wear down your body and your muscles. When you rest, the body repairs itself, making the worn parts a little bit stronger every time. This is exactly how you get stronger and faster, which means that if you do not get enough rest then you cannot improve your form. So far so good. The real question is how much rest is enough. This seems to be very individual from person to person, and I don't think there is a universal recipe that fits all. I myself have a complete day off from running and other training once a week, which is a strict instruction from my trainer Ketil that I do not deviate from. (OK, I admit that sometimes seven or eight days might pass between such days...) Other than this, my rest is normally slow and easy training rather than no training. Exceptions are around races, where I do have complete rest days before and after, depending on the length of the race.

In my experience, the most important thing is to listen to your body and decide each day's exercise depending on how you feel. I check my heart rate every morning before I get up; if it is slow then I know that I am good to go for tough exercise. If it is higher than normal, then it is a day for taking it easy. I read once that you should decide what kind of training you are going to have, during your warm up. Just listen to your body; make it a hard and fast one if you feel up to it, or make it a slow one if that's what your body tells you. The worst mistake you can make is to stick to a plan, regardless of how you feel and how tired you are. In the beginning I used to make the mistake that I think many eager new beginners do; train hard several days in a row. Then I would have days where I felt really exhausted and experienced high heart rate. Now I know that most of my training should be slow and easy, and this is exactly what I will strive for this year. Longer and slower runs, combined with faster and shorter intervals. Uphills are always perfect, they boost your form without wearing out your legs. The most important thing, as everybody will tell you, is to make sure that you have fun all the time. If running and training stop being fun and start to feel like an obligation, then you are on the wrong path, and you might risk losing your motivation.

Back to my seasonal break: with the above background I decided to take two weeks off from running during the Christmas break. My initial plan was actually to take two weeks off from all training, but not surprisingly, I did not manage that. There were just too many fun activities planned by Melkesyre and too nice weather to have a complete rest. But I did have a proper rest from running. This is how my two weeks went:
-- Days 1-4: complete rest with no training what so ever
-- Day 5: easy strength training
-- Day 6: complete rest with no training
-- Days 7-9: slow mountain hiking
-- Day 10: the only day with "proper" training: uphill interval running
-- Day 11: slow but tough mountain hiking (where we almost got lost in the fog)
-- Day 12: only strength training
-- Days 13-14: complete rest with no training
So my legs did get a proper rest from running, and I had a lot of fun during the mountain hikes and the other training sessions. But did the seasonal break actually work? Yesterday I got a proper opportunity to test the effect. I participated in a half marathon training arranged by the organizers of Bergen City Marathon, and I was very happy with the outcome.

I was lucky to have some of my Melkesyre friends, Cathrine, Roger and Hege, to do the 21 km training together with, and even more Melkesyre friends, Ove, Laila and Vibeke, joined us for the last 10.5 km. (The picture above was taken after the finish.) Although it was planned by the organizers that the around 150 participants would divide into three different pace groups, we ended up in many more much smaller groups of individual pace. I ran next to Roger for all of the 21 km, which was extremely pleasant, useful and motivating. First of all, when you have company, time and distance go so much faster and easier since your mind is occupied with other things than just running. Secondly, when you are talking all the time, you cannot run too fast, which is perfect as this is training and not competition. And last but not least, when you run next to a person, you both get pushed to run a little bit faster than you would have done otherwise. In the end, I ran 5-10 minutes faster than what I was planning, but I felt that I had an easy enough pace and comfortable heart rate all the way. The best part was that we started slow and got faster and faster all the time. Our starting pace was around 6-6:30, whereas it was 5:10-5:20 towards the end. I completed the course in 2:00:15, which is 35 seconds faster than my competition time for this course from April 2014!

I must admit that after my struggles during Oslo half marathon in September, I had started to doubt whether my half marathon form had at all improved since April. About a month ago, with Melkesyre we had a 21 km practice run at 6:30 pace, at the end of which my legs felt quite tired, and this added to my worries. However, I did get an incredible form boost after that run, which really convinced me that I should do more long and slow runs. The run of yesterday was not slow enough to qualify as a slow run, but it gave me renewed self confidence with respect to running half marathons, which I think might be just as useful. Now I think I have a chance of a good improvement of my time at this year's Bergen City half marathon!

Right now I have a feeling that I am in better shape than ever. Is it due to the seasonal break? I don't know. Probably not entirely, but I am confident that it has been useful. Tomorrow is the fourth 5 km race of this winter. It will give a new opportunity to test my form.

And guess what? Today is a complete rest day!