Rest Day

Yeah it’s best not to run on consecutive days. Have the full day off in between, otherwise you’ll just overwork yourself!

I did read something about when you can start running on consecutive days but I can’t remember what it was. It’s certainly not during the first 9 weeks though!

I was wondering exactly that. And also does it strictly mean every other day ie effectively not 3 runs in one week? So this week for me has been: running Sunday morning and this morning, and then Thursday morning for my 3rd run and then moving up to the next “week” on Saturday morning.

I rest a full day ie run Monday rest Tues run Weds. Hadn’t thought about doing it any other way!

I think it means don’t run the next day at all eg Mon, Wed, Fri or Tues, Thurs, Sat. I fit my 3 runs into a calendar week so I don’t run every other day and sometimes will skip 2 days. I don’t do regular days either because if I’m busy on that day I don’t want to have to squeeze the run in and not enjoy it.

Yes, the programme says always take a rest day and either do three runs a week, or run every other day. I did skip two rest days earlier, due to over-enthusiam, and was told in no uncertain terms by people on here why that’s a bad idea (risk of injury). In fact it apparently takes 18 months for running legs to develop to the point where running on consecutive days is OK.

I did stretch the rules last week, to allow the “every other day” runs to fit my schedule better by leaving a gap of 36 hours, rather than 48... so ran first thing one day, evening the following day, and first thing 2 days later. But again, that is not advisable, and risks injury.

The advice is to have a rest day between runs, on which your damaged muscles repair and strengthen, as explained in the guide to the plan healthunlocked.com/couchto5...

The difference between 18hrs and 24hrs rest may or may not be significant, but I would say what is the hurry? You have a lifetime to run and you will want to spend as little of that time on the injury couch as possible. You will not do any harm having an extra rest day, but you are much more likely to suffer if you do not give yourself adequate recovery time.

Many new runners might get away with running daily from the outset, while many others would quickly suffer from overuse injuries.

Slow and steady progress is by far your best route forward.

Thanks for all the replies everyone. I'm the one that runs every other day. I don't want to injure myself, I want to complete the programme 😊😊 I'm so close to finishing it I'm not risking it. Will pass on the info to my colleague 😊

I run Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday consistently each week. With Sunday being the start of the next week on the App. To give myself a bit of extra time for my muscles to relax after the Thursday.