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Jamie McGuire's avatar

Legendary running coach Jack Daniels recommends 2 weeks as the minimum amount of time for a planned break from running. You lose almost no fitness in 2 weeks. But, like you, I need running to stay sane during the pandemic. So after taking 3 days off at the start of 2021, I needed to start running again. Instead of feeling refreshed, my body felt much worse than it did before the break. My solution: shorter and slower than usual daily runs until I feel like ramping it up, 6 strides on all easy days, some low-volume speed work, and one long-ish run per week.

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Emmett Freedman's avatar

Literally just finished writing in my journal "I'm over the snow." I cannot tell you how reassuring it is to hear someone else talk about the doom and gloom thinking that comes with deciding to take a couple days off. I also use running as my rock for the day and connection to the outside world, and I know that on days I don't run I have to take extra care not to let my mood run foul. Something I always tell myself I should get better at (shouldn't I be fine taking a few weeks off?) but it never seems to happen.

Anyway, I feel your pain. Although my frustration with running in the snow was a little less hardcore (NYC sidewalks and park paths). Still less than ideal!

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