Hi Coach Jay,
I am a senior and am going to be competing in my last year of cross-country and track this year. I have worked my way up to some good mileage this summer and it is my first time ever getting to mileage that high. During track season I would take every other Sunday completely off as a rest day, but I'm having a hard time doing that now because of the high mileage. My question is, is it okay to run 7 days a week with no rest day? I'm just scared that I will burn out before the end of the cross-country season. Any advice would be great!

Thanks!! Claire

Hi Claire.
So good to hear that you're taking your training seriously and that you're running some good foundational miles.  I'm happy to help you, but I want to say at the outset that you might not like some of my suggestions…but I promise they'll help you reach your ultimate goal, which is to see how fast you can run this season.

I think the key with mileage is to remember that there is an amount of running that will definitely help you race faster…and then there is an amount of running that will wear you out, causing you to be too fatigued to run to your potential.  Now, figuring out this balance is by no means easy; it takes professional runners years to learn where this balance is.  But for you, I think you should simply revert back to taking at least every other Sunday off and maybe every Sunday off during the track season.  Remember, once the workouts and the races are in your body, the only way that your body adapts is if you give it enough rest to "absorb" the stimulus.  So if you run a meet on Friday, then come back for a recovery run on Saturday, taking Sunday off is no big deal.  And when Monday rolls around, you'll be ready to go, ready to train hard.

Also, one thing that many high school athletes forget is that it's one thing to train during the summer where there aren't any school pressures and obligations, but it's another thing to train once school starts and you're rushing from the end of your last period of school to class.  That stress, coupled with the intense stress that comes in the form of a weekly cross-country race, make the over-all training stress of the fall cross-country season much higher than that of the summer foundation building phase.  You need to respect the races on your schedule and you need to acknowledge that you've simply got more going on during the school year than you had in the summer.

Final thought.  With the professionals I've coached, I would always back off with the training when I sensed they were tired.  A day off is a powerful thing because if you give the body a chance to recover from all of the hard work you've thrown at it (again, remember that the races count) the body will respond and you'll have gained a bit of fitness.  However, if you train/race/train/race and don't have enough recovery days or days off in your schedule, you'll simply be fatigued and you won't be able to run to your capabilities.

So there you go.  Take that Sunday off and don't worry about what your weekly mileage adds up to (especially since you got in such a great summer of training).

Good luck Claire! 

Jay