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"This time David (Rudisha) had a three-month rest after his last race on 29 August, in Zurich. Three months without any kind of training. He needed this long break for charging his batteries physically and mentally. When he resumed training, we had to be very careful. You could easily catch an injury. Basic conditioning, easy runs, about 60km a week, some gym work, exercises. Slowly but surely we increased the quality, the weekly mileage remained the same. In March, we started adding the track workouts."
- Brother Colm
Whether or not to take a complete rest from running postseason is a common ‘old as the hills’ subject of debate in middle distance and distance running. This article doesn’t attempt to determine or suggest an ideal solution; its goal is to simply provoke some intrigue.
The Kenyan Way – Rest, Eat, Get Fat....
Kenyan, and many other African athletes are well known for taking complete breaks from running postseason for anywhere from a couple of weeks all the way up to 3 months (in the case of Rudisha).
I think it stands to reason that the below ‘rest’ periods need to be taken with a grain of salt. Brother Colm has stated publically that his athlete’s rested for certain periods of time postseason in the sense that he didn’t write programs during that time, but he has stated that athletes were allowed to go for runs if they felt like it.
Some examples of well-known athlete’s postseason recovery routines:
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Herb Elliott always took a month off for recovery. Ron Clarke always trained through. Herb saw not taking a break as a lack of confidence.
Awesome information!Thanks Tony
No worries. Nice article. I too doubt Rudisha does nothing for three months.