Do I have to always have a rest day?

[Capri-]

Morning,

I graduated 2-3 weeks ago & I'm really enjoying consolidating the program, I generally ran 5K twice a week and 7K once at a slower pace.

I still want to run just 3 times a week but time pressures and the weather can get in the way. I would like to run today and tomorrow.

Thoughts.

[DiscoRunner Graduate]

As you are still a novice runner, I’d be very careful. When we’ve completed c25k we’ve run a little over 8 hours, you’ve added another maybe 6 to 9 hours to that since graduation. From what I’ve read on here it’s safer to do consecutive running maybe 6 months after graduating, but nearer a year. At the moment you’re still building a lot of muscle, and the bone & blood capillary infrastructure that will protect you from injury, and all that building happens on the rest day. Can you do a different form of exercise instead?

[Capri- Graduate in reply to DiscoRunner]

Thanks Disco, I think ill get my bike out!

[DiscoRunner Graduate in reply to Capri-]

Brilliant idea!

[UnfitNoMore Graduate]

Rest days are badly named... non-running days would be a better description. The NHS advice is a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate cardio or 75 of vigorous cardio... they class running as the latter. And 2 days with strength exercises. Flexibility is also good and helps a lot with both the cardio and strength work. nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/

So, there’s lots that you can do on “rest” days. We have a forum for strength and flex healthunlocked.com/strength...

Running back to back days isn’t recommended until you’ve been running at least 6 months and even then it’s not recommended to run every day for a year or more after that.

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

If you read the guide to post C25K running healthunlocked.com/couchto5... you will find an article answering your question.

It suggests not running on consecutive days until you have at least six months of regular running on your legs and extra cardio work on rest days.