How much rest do I need after a workout?

2026 Day 157. #TrainingDays.

As I have been trying to get my running mileage up (25km/week to 45km/week), I have been running longer and training harder. Overall I see a lot of improvement. Inadvertently, I have adopted a training pattern that is only visible to me in hindsight.

At large, I follow a weekly split and a monthly split.

Weekly Split.

Day 1.

5K Zone 2 Run + Core Training + Pull Ups

Day 2.

5K Zone 2 Run + Lower Body Training

Day 3.

10K Zone 2 Run/5K Interval Dun

Day 4.

5K Zone 2 Run + Upper Body Training

Day 5.

5K Zone 2 Run + Functional Strength Training

Day 6.

5K Zone 2 Run + Yoga

Day 7.

10K Zone 2 Run/5K Interval Run

No rest days may feel like a lot, but now a 5K feels like nothing to me. The 10K sessions used to be my rest days earlier but I have simply no need for them anymore because a Zone 2 5K just does not stress me out anymore. It feels like going on a walk.

For more of a challenge I could run it faster, but my training needs align more with running slower for longer.

I am certainly not pushing myself as much as I used to do before in terms of an individual run. The major reason for this is that I achieved my goal of a sub-30 5K about two months ago. The next goal I have requires stamina more than speed.

Monthly Split.

Week 1-3.

Week 1–3 look exactly the same as the split described above. I do miss some days because of social commitments, but there is not much I can do about those moments. I treat them as necessary rest days that my body wants but the mind feels the body is doing fine.

These rest days are a little annoying but at their worst, they are just helping me recover from physical stress that I have built up.

I am lucky to have been injury free all this while. Slower/controlled runs and functional movement has helped me avoid extra stress and mistakes.

Week 4.

I have been travelling every month, so this week usually involves long days where I am constantly driving, walking, etc. Some days however are extremely lazy, I just spend my day in bed.

In the moment these seem extremely unsatisfactory. I get so used to moving that staying in bed feels weird but at the same time there is not much else to do.

However, when I come back to train again I feel the biggest difference.

Over the 3 weeks with minimal break, my muscles are sore. The soreness becomes almost a norm to the point that I start subconsciously ignoring it. I feel it mostly in my lower back and legs.

When I train after this break, the pain free experience is on another level. I feel like I can further than I had ever done before. At times I have made the mistake to push myself a little extra on the first day back. I then have to face DOMS but eventually that subsides too.

While this is not a science backed training split that I carefully planned, it has been working great for me. I believe the accumulated stress of the weeks 1–3 gets evened out over week 4. Stretching in those weeks also adds to being pain-free.

When I do come back to train again instead of ramping on slowly I go back with a full force. I also increase the reps for exercise or try to speed up (while in Zone 2).

Over the past 2 months my Zone 2 pace (max HR 130) has gone from 8'30" min/km to about 7'30"min/km. This I believe was aided by the fact that I had been training for a while but never with such focus. My target aim is to have the same HR at about 6' min/km. This would make a 5'30" min/km pace reasonable and I would be good to go for a sub-4 marathon.

Hopefully this all works out.

See you tomorrow.