Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

My take on it. In the Ten Commandments it says: "Six days shalt thou labor, and on the seventh shalt thou rest". There are two parts to the commandment - part one, work really hard for six days, and part two, take a break for a day. I believe the commandment came from God, and one reason He told us to do so is that He made our bodies so they operate best on the 6-1 regimen. With that in mind, my approach is to run so hard Monday through Saturday so I do not feel like running on Sunday. However, not so hard to not make me want to run the following Monday.

I used to run on Sunday but and at the time I felt it helped me more in the mental area than anywhere. I now choose to honor the sabbath day and personally it has not hurt me. I run twice a day quite often, Are you telling me 7x a week is superior to 8-12x a week with one 24hr period to completely rest the mind and body? Maybe it works for you and thats fine. But as for me the spiritual benefits far outweigh what little physical gain I could possibly receive. By the way I happen to know for a fact that Ryan Hall does not run on Sunday...

Sasha,

Your argument assumes that running is work, Sunday or any other day of the week.

I agree that you can have great success with running 6 days a week. Sasha has done a good job of using Sunday as a recovery day. I personally like to run long on Sunday, after Mass of course. There are times in my training when taking a day off means that I am sick. Other times I am more willing to listen to aches and pains. After marathons I have always regretted running too soon. My point, if there is one, is that you need to have a reason to run. Whether it is a hard workout, base miles, recovery, pure barefoot-in-the-grass joy, it should be about training. The same with days off.

In the traditional Kenyan system the runners take at least a month off a year. Ethiopian Haile Gebresalassie runs twice a day every day except for Christmas. Both have had success because each of them do it for a reason.

Steve - Ryan Hall did run on Sunday when he set his half-marathon record. That said, I still firmly believe in not training or racing on Sunday. I think in addition to the temporal blessing attached to the natural 6-1 pattern, there are less tangible spiritual blessing that come into play that will affect your running among other things.

Mike - running is sure work. At least when you try to be competitive. Sometimes it is more enjoyable than at other times. Just like any other kind of job. Sometimes it is fun, sometimes it is not, but if you want good results, you go out and do it no matter the weather or your mood.

Thats news to me then because in an interview he said that he did not while others did.

Maybe what he meant is that he did not train on Sundays.

Either way to me it is only one part of a mix of ingredients that enable one to become successful. We all are free to choose our own path and thats the way God meant it to be.

Either way to me it is only one part of a mix of ingredients that enable one to become successful. We all are free to choose our own path and thats the way God meant it to be.

Thats news to me then because in an interview he said that he did not while others did.

Sorry about the reloaded pages, I was trying to refresh the page for new replys and instesd it only reloaded my entrys.

Paul's original question was about effects of taking days off, not just Sundays.

Sasha, how dare you accuse me of having a job. I enjoy my joblessness and will not tolerate anyone thinking that I work. It wreaks my "kept man" status. No W-2's here.

Back to the point I was trying to make. A planned day off is a training method. It has its place in a program. Sasha and Steve have used it well. I don't because it is not part of my program. I take days when my body needs a day. I could have run through my last foot problem but I've learned from Paul not to force it. I learned it on this site and his blog. Thanks Paul. Running last week would have been for pride.

Well, in the end you may very well be right about the performance issue. But Im still going take a day off and that day is Sunday. I just left a job for that reason. So for me it is about the sabbath.

Wow, I leave to go run for a couple hours, and I come back to vigorous debate! Thanks for the input though, everyone has really good points. I was hoping to drum up some good discussion and challenge people a little bit (including myself). In case yoiu can't tell, I like playing "devil's advocate". Also, keep in mind I was pulling most of that stuff off another site. It's a good thread to read if you haven't already.

I agree with Mike that running is not necessarily "work" (which I why I don't have a problem running on Sunday despite my evangelical protestantism). I consider my little Sunday trail runs and watchless jaunts to be "play" even. I's quite invorgorating and even spirtual to me, a time for meditation and worship. But play to one man can be work to another.

Mike also makes a good point about training programs. When I was coming back from injury, I started at 4 days/week running, then 5, then 6, with x-training supplementing some of the other days. The days off were important for me to insure steady progress and monitor my body. Currently I'm healthy, with a big base, and NOW it fits in my training program to run a couple weeks in a row without a day off. But before it would have been suicide. Like I said in the blog, lots of good reasons to take a planned day off.

Hey guys, thanks for a good debate! It's great to have a friendly discussion about training (and life) philosophies.

Steve: I think you are right, running 8-12x per week with a day off would be better than 7x per week with no days off. Similar principle: running more often makes you faster!

Thanks for eveybodys input. I know I can be opinionated and a bit too serious at times.