Here is where you actually get to have fun though!! Instead of running, during your break, you can now go do other workouts and active recovery that you otherwise would not be able to do during the middle of your season! (Note: this does NOT mean that you elliptical 2 hours a day or something equivalent!) During my post-season, I just swim, and adjust my workouts to however I am feeling each day—this keeps my brain from feeling kind of off, and I honestly just love swimming so it is easy to replace my runs with that kind of workout.
By the way, this is also why it is great to integrate a form of cross-training that you actually enjoy into your regular season repertoire: then in the offseason or times of injury, you will have something to turn to that will help both your body and your mind out AND that activity will come very naturally to you instead of feeling super different from what you usually do! Sometimes I swim easy, sometimes I swim hard, but I just adjust to each day and above all else, I HAVE FUN. I am splish splashing around in that pool LOVING MY LIFE. When I swim during breaks, I usually have such a blast that I actually could care less that I am not running! (My college self just gasped, but it is true!)
Along those same lines of having fun in the off-season, you should also allow yourself your break as a time to stay moving in fresh ways, whether you try a Zumba class or hop on a spin bike or go to the pool or even just do a really intense house cleaning session. In my most recent post-season break, I di a few short hikes through the woods to the coffee shop and back! Keep yourself moving and loose, but just in moderate doses as you feel. This is also a good time to do some yoga! Side story: right before I went to London in 2012, I had fallen in a hole in a field after a half marathon here in the U.S. Upon my arrival in the U.K., my foot suddenly decided to not cooperate with me at all. This, though I did not know it at the time, was 10000% the best thing that could have happened to me: I took two weeks off and just went to a new yoga class every day and learned a ton! Once I did start running, I really did feel stronger than ever! So, who knows, your break may also be a breakthrough!
Checking in with the Little Things
Breaks, I have found, are also a good time to check in with the “little things” as we runners like to call them: those smaller little exercises and stretches and the foam rolling that may have dropped by the wayside a bit during the mid-season buildup or when you were racing a lot. Here is where you can make mental or real notes about what exercises and stretches your body most needs to keep up with throughout the season—take care of any little niggles during this time, and develop a plan to keep them from coming back when you really want to be running hard and healthy. If you notice one side is tighter than the other, this is a good time to start to even that out! I also highly recommend yin yoga as a way to just reset and relax: here is the whole Yin Yoga section of Runners Love Yoga TV if you need some inspiration and guidance!
And Above All, Let the Break be a Break!
Also be sure that during your break, you really take a break! So, your overall training volume, even with your cross-training, should not be going anywhere near your max mid-season volume. Listen to your body here, adjust accordingly, and just be sure to have fun, whatever you are doing. Soon enough, the weeks will tick by, and you will find yourself in the midst of hardcore training once again (taking a second to remember this during your break is a good way to ensure your break is a break!).
In the midst of the upcoming season, you want to feel like you are strong and coming from a place where you got yourself to a “full charge,” rather than trying to do advanced work with a dying battery (to use a relatable phone analogy here). Resting hard allows you to work hard, and to tap into your full potential as a healthy, happy, strong athlete in the upcoming season and all those to follow. Soak up that break, and own the breakthroughs that will follow!
