"If you listen to your body when it whispers you won't have to hear it scream"

I came across the quote in the title of this blog post earlier this week and it really spoke to me. I have been battling with a tight hip flexor the last 2 weeks of my half marathon training. So i ran a week ago monday and then didn't run again until Sunday for a long slow run and i felt it still so i have taken the rest of this week off as well. This is so hard to do mentally. But i must listen to my body so i can still race on Oct 27th. This race will be my first half marathon since having Peyton. I had originally planned on racing in Fredericton a month before this race so i think my body just has had enough of the rigorous speed workouts, tempo and long runs. It needs a break. Time to heal and get stronger. An "off season".  

I have never used training calculators this intensely before and really tried to match my paces to my goal race pace. And wow what a difference it makes. In my 10km virtual race i shaved almost 10 minutes off my PB (personal best) for a 10 km. I used both the bane.info and mcmillian training pace calculators. I recommend both for reaching those goal paces:) Runner friends have any of you used pace training calculators before? Do you find that they have helped you shave seconds and minutes off your PB times?

Back to the importance of an off season for us runners or even those who constantly put lots of work in to working out. I truly believe that taking it easy a week here and there is good for the body and allows it to come back even stronger than before. Most if not all professional athletes do it. You basically just tone down the intensity for your particular sport and concentrate on activities that will help make you stronger in your sport of choice. For running i think its beneficial to take a week or two totally off after a big event like a half marathon or a marathon and let your body heal. Then for your off season bring down your mileage and just run some easy slow runs and concentrate more on functional strength training, yoga and foam rolling. This is a time to allow your body to heal and to prevent over use injuries. According to active.com here is a list of reasons why it's so crucial for tri-athletes and runners to take time off:

1. recover from race season

1. avoid overtraining

1. and prevent injuries.

Here are seven more reasons to take an offseason and, for the restless ones, five things you should do during the down months.

Photo from active.com article on "10 reasons triathletes and runners need an off season

7 MORE REASONS YOU NEED AN OFFSEASON

To rest your cardiovascular system including your heart and lungs.

1. To allow your joints, tendons, ligaments, muscles and fascia time to heal from all the stress.

1. To work on postural and muscular imbalances. If you have injuries or muscle tightness/trigger points that are one-sided, then you have an imbalance that should be addressed to prevent future injuries.

1. To hit the weights. Strength training will help you to train harder and provide greater stability and strength to help prevent injuries.  

1. With age, your body needs more time to recover. If you want to continue racing competitively for years to come, then taking care of yourself is important.  

1. You stress your adrenals by training hard, getting up early, and racing.  

1. Endurance athletes have a tendency to become catabolic- you lose lean muscle. If you lose too much muscle, then the integrity of your bone density may become affected

WHAT TO DO DURING THE OFFSEASON

1. Cut your training volume. You can and should train three to four times per week for 30 to 40 minutes at an easy pace. But you should avoid intervals and speed work.

1. Do yoga or tai chi.

1. Rest, sleep in, and sleep more.

1. Plan your goals for the next year; pick your "A" races.

1. Strength train two to three times per week. This is the time to hit the gym hard and work on functional strength exercises with free weights, cables, barbells, Swiss balls and balance boards.

1. Weekly soft tissue work sessions. Even if you don't feel that your muscles are tight, there are trigger points and fascia that need to be released. Trigger points reduce the ability of the muscle to work, which leads to compensation and the potential for injuries. Neuromuscular therapy, neurosomatic therapy and myofascial release are techniques that should be used.  

1. Go gluten free. Endurance athletes need more carbohydrates when they're training and racing.  Many athletes eat processed carbohydrates often with gluten. If you're not gluten free already, you should be. Gluten causes systemic inflammation in the body, hampering training and recovery.  There are over 100 symptoms. Try going completely gluten free for one month. The goal is to go "grain free" and eat lots of meats, fish, eggs, vegetables and fruit.  After you have been gluten free, eat a large bowl of regular pasta and see how you feel.

1. Eliminate caffeine for a minimum of six weeks. Caffeine stimulates your nervous system, which can add to stress on the adrenals.  The more you use it, the more your body gets used to it.  It will work much better if you come off of caffeine and then reintroduce it for key training runs and races at a future date.  

The article goes on to discuss how after a 4 week rest you can slowly bring in the number of days you train in "your" sport and increase your volume. But it's best to keep the strength training and stability work in your program until you start seriously training for races again. After 4 weeks you can slowly add back in some easy speed work. Like running 200 m repeats at a 5k pace. This gets your body geared back up for speed work without putting too much stress on it. The author of the article, Karen Redmond, also recommends that you should give yourself a full 3 months off from racing each year. She indicates your body will thank you in the long run if you give it the rest it deserves. Mentally an off season can be really tough. Do you normally take one? I do for the most part i still run but with all the snow it's at a much slower pace. I love running in the winter and just enjoy it and it's nice not to have to stress about missing a run or two. I also plan on every few months taking an easy active week like this week and concentrating on yoga, easy upper body work, core and lots of walking. I have been referring to this week (or maybe two) as my active recovery week. It's important to me mentally to keep moving and keep active but it's a nice break to do more lower intensity activities. Your body is meant to move so i don't think being a couch potato is beneficial but active recovery sure is. Have you started to plan your "off-season" what activities will you include? I like to get out snow shoeing, downhill skiing and would love to get a pair of used cross country skis in the future.