taking a break before XC kicks off

bren74

With the last of the track meets taking place over the next week or so and the XC season kicking off in end September - what are peoples plans for taking a break to get the body and mind re-charged?
I've been consistently training and racing since last October (thankfully no injuries but a couple of injuries) both xc track and road.
I have a few road races towards the end of August that aren’t a priority but would still like to compete. xc training will start around this time too
so I'm planning a week away from club and training ahead of this.
what are other peoples plans? Do people do any cross training during their break or switch off completely? Bit of a brain dump but interested in how others have managed the transition

Running Bing

Im planning to take a couple of weeks off. Im hoping to do a good cross country programme over the winter so I think it would be mentally quite tough going straight into that and I think a bit of a break will help me recharge mentally, get into the proper frame of mind and allow any slight niggles to heal up.


I wont do any running but I do plan to do a bit of swimming, some biking and start a weights programme. Nothing too heavy, just enjoy it and keep the mind off running for a couple of weeks.

Stupid_Private

What's in my mind at the moment could easily change but looks a little like this...

Finish on the track next week.
Try to find a few road races with the last being the 10km in Firhouse in September.
Bit of a break - 5 days to a week
That should have me back training around the 19th September with the Dublin Novice probably the following week.

BeepBeep67

Similar to Private, have done a bunch of short races, 3 more to go, followed by 2 10ks (Kilmore & Pearl Azumi) that will be 13 races in as many weeks, then I have an enforced break due to a week's business travel, so will probably run 4 x 5miles that week, including 3 days complete rest. I have the feelers out trying to identify a race in Austria or Slovakia the weekend of Sept 12th, if that works out I'll travel early and skip the Pearl Az.
Then it's back to base training with the county Novice & Intermediate the 1st 2 weekends of Oct.

shels4ever

didn't have much of a summer of races myself so really only been ticking over the past few week. XC Training started 2 weeks ago . Will do the Firhouse 10k in sept to see how things are going then.

ecoli

Tergat actually covered this in his recent thread on days off for anyone who might be interested in his thoughts

AJCOT

Going to try cross country for the first time bar a BHAA army course. Do I need spikey shoes & where is the best spot to get them? Thanks all have a good looooooooooong weekend.

ecoli

Some people use there long distance spikes and just change the size of the spikes in the shoe usually to on average 9mm spikes. I myself bought specific XC spikes (Puma ngong) off John Buckley and find them really good. They are slightly heavy for spikes but provide great support perfect for uneven terrain you will find in cross races

cfitz

AJCOT wrote: »

Going to try cross country for the first time bar a BHAA army course. Do I need spikey shoes & where is the best spot to get them? Thanks all have a good looooooooooong weekend.

Most cross-country races would be very slippery without spikes. I really like the 'Nike Forever XC' shoes. Choice in the shops is awful, so maybe try eastbay.com or startfitness.co.uk.

Peckham

AJCOT wrote: »

where is the best spot to get them?

I got mine in Runaways on Parnell Street last year, and they had a decent selection (assuming you're based in Dublin).

I got good advice from someone here on spike selection. Can't remember who. However, maybe one of the guys/girls in the know could post up their thoughts on choice of spike length.....

ecoli

Spike length can be changed from race my usual guidelines for this is

7mm very hard (frosty even) course with very little mud
9mm standard for a XC race with a bit of mud to give you some grip without your spikes getting matted with a layer of muck you have to carry for the remainder of the race
12mm rarely ever broken these out usually when there has been torrential rain coming up to a race or if i know the course is notorious for being so mucky you are practically sinking

I have never gone for anything bigger as i dont feel they are of any use however anyone with experience of longer spike length feel free to give advice as i dont have experience with them

eon1208

bren74 wrote: »

With the last of the track meets taking place over the next week or so and the XC season kicking off in end September - what are peoples plans for taking a break to get the body and mind re-charged?
I've been consistently training and racing since last October (thankfully no injuries but a couple of injuries) both xc track and road.
I have a few road races towards the end of August that aren’t a priority but would still like to compete. xc training will start around this time too
so I'm planning a week away from club and training ahead of this.
what are other peoples plans? Do people do any cross training during their break or switch off completely? Bit of a brain dump but interested in how others have managed the transition

Am in the M40 category myself and was feeling jaded with my race performances nosediving so I have just completed a 14 day complete rest from running.. Glad I did it as I normally train through these slumps so we will see how things go... In the two days I am back training the only issue is the extreme stiffness in my quads.. I probably should have started back with a couple of 3 milers instead of back to back 5 milers......

DJS

Well iv been training hard since August last year, racing Xc, roads, Indoors, Outdoors. Im goin to take 3weeks off for my break which Im dying for, On my break im going to enjoy myself not think of running for at least 2weeks. On the 3rd week im going to jog every 2nd day for a week. Then after that im running 40mins every day and slowly bring the miles back.

AJCOT

cfitz, Peckham & ecoli thanks for your helpful feedback.