What Is a Rest Day in Marathon Training?

When you’re training for a marathon, a scheduled rest day is just as important as your training runs. Getting your body prepared for the stress of running 26.2 miles is a long and difficult challenge. Most often, training programs last 12 weeks and consist of runs that increase in distance as you progress. Regularly incorporating rest days will keep you healthy and improve your running performance.

  1. Rest Day

    • Rest days are scheduled once or twice a week throughout a marathon training schedule. They’re often placed immediately after your extremely long runs. Depending on your training level, you can handle your rest days in different ways. More advanced runners will sometimes use their rest days to go for a low-intensity jog that lasts 20 to 30 minutes to loosen up their muscles. Novice runners and at times advanced runners will choose to take the day off from running altogether on their rest day.

    Significance

    • Taking a day off during your training schedule is important for maintaining physical and mental health. It’s during the breaks that your muscles are able to recover and heal. A rest day allows your body to adequately restore glycogen and helps to prevent overuse injuries. Not taking a day off increases the risk of injury, since most problems occur from the repetitive stress. In addition, it provides a likely much-needed mental break from training. Renowned marathon running coach Hal Higdon notes that runners will be unable to reach their full potential if they don’t take time to recover and are constantly fatigued.

    Effective Recovery

    • If you decide to use your rest day as a day off from running, instead of doing nothing, use the time to facilitate recovery and healing. Go for a walk to get your blood flowing and then perform a thorough, full-body stretching routine. Catch up on sleep. Consider scheduling a massage or rolling out tight muscles with a foam roller.

    Week Before Race

    • Rest days may increase in frequency during the week before your marathon. At the end of your training program, your body is likely to be tired from the 11 previous weeks of high workloads, so more rest days allow your body to recover and to let any areas of pain and discomfort subside before the big day. Hal Higdon recommends that you rest on the two days prior to your race so you go into the event with full glycogen stores and without any fatigue.