Run Coaches Say These 3 Non-Running Day Habits Can Actually Hurt Your Performance. Plus, What to Do Instead.

Throughout the season, my college run coach would schedule several mandatory “no running” days into our training. He said these days would help ensure my teammates and I recovered from hard workouts, avoided overtraining and injury, and simply had a free 24 hours to focus on life outside of running.When I whined that I felt fine and didn’t need a break, he said the same thing: “That’s the whole point of taking a day off from running—so you can feel like you never need one.” Unable to argue with that logic, I begrudgingly took the day off, and that was that.But every run coach has a slightly different philosophy about these non-running days, including how frequently to take them and whether you should use that time for cross-training. The answer to much of that will depend on the runner. But regardless of who you talk to, most coaches agree days off from running are crucial to performance—like, mission-critical.“You never get stronger while you’re running. You get stronger and faster on the recovery days, when your body repairs that damage from exercise and consolidates those gains,” Alex Morrow, an RRCA-certified run coach, instructor, and founder of Resolute Running, tells Runner’s World.Still, recovery days can feel difficult for runners to recognize as part of training. “If I say, ‘Okay, we’re doing four miles at lactate threshold pace today,’ they’re all excited. But when I say, ‘We’re taking the day off’—that’s when they’ll try to fight me,” Morrow says.Whether you welcome a break from your usual miles or hate going a day without them—or feel some mix of the two—you want that time off the run to support your training goals. This means forming habits that help you get the most out of your recovery so your non-running days don’t stall your progress.It’s more than simply avoiding the obvious missteps: According to run coaches, some of the habits runners think will improve their fitness can actually delay their recovery, increase fatigue and injury risk, or interfere with beneficial training adaptations. These are the most common mistakes run coaches see, plus their expert advice on what to do instead to boost your performance and recovery.1. Waiting Until You’re Wrecked to Take a Day OffThis was exactly the thing my college coach was trying to avoid—pushing my teammates or me to the point at which we were literally aching for a day to rest.For runners with a high weekly mileage target, it can be hard to let go of an extra day of running in favor of complete rest or light cross-training.“The human body works through stimulus, recovery, and adaptation. So your training is only as good as your body’s ability to adapt to it,” explains Laura Norris, an RRCA-certified run coach, cohost of the Tread Lightly podcast, and founder of Laura Norris Running. “And your body needs time for recovery so those beneficial training adaptations can occur.”To ensure her athletes have a sufficient window for recovery, Norris gives the recreational runners she coaches at least one mandatory complete rest day each week.“Rest days are best as a prophylactic measure rather than a reactive measure,” she explains. “If a runner reaches a point where they’re exhausted, super sore, and a run sounds impossible, they’re in an under-recovered state. They’re not going to adapt to the training stimulus supplied, and they may also have a higher injury risk and weakened immunity.”That said, the number of rest days you take per week will depend on several factors, including your experience level. “My newer runners are absolutely getting two or three rest days per week, whereas some of my more advanced runners have one day off,” Morrow says. “Then you have those very advanced runners who might be running seven days a week, but they still have rest,” he explains.Morrow says that some of those very advanced runners might have a day where they only run for about 20 minutes and stay in a high zone 1, low zone 2 effort. “This means they’re barely running—it’s nice, slow, and relaxed to the point that they’re not even thinking about it,” Morrow says. This would be their active recovery day.He adds that these runners also need to be mindful of what he calls “Rest Day Creep,” meaning that those 20 minutes of jogging become 40 or 50 minutes. Even if they feel great, Morrow wants his athletes to shut it down early, which can make it easier for them to avoid this next problematic tactic.2. Running Anyway Because You Feel GreatFor his newer runners, Morrow explains that rest days are not only critical, but mandatory. “My newer runners will often tell me, ‘Coach, I feel great. I think I should go run some more,’” he says. “And that is precisely why they shouldn’t.”In newer runners, the tendons, ligaments, joints, and bones haven’t adapted as rapidly as the cardiovascular and pulmonary systems, Morrow says. “They feel good because their cardiovascular systems have improved rapidly, but that mechanical fitness lags behind a little.” In other words, the lungs improve faster than the legs, and according to Morrow, skipping that rest day can set you up for injuries.Norris agrees: “If a runner feels like they don’t need the day off, that means the rest day is functioning in its intended way to encourage recovery.” This is also the point at which many runners realize they’ve been normalizing fatigue or mild soreness. When they finally stop resisting the rest day, they finally find how much better they consistently feel throughout training, she says.3. Using a Non-Running Day for Cross-Training—and Pushing Too HardIf you have a designated rest day on your schedule, Norris advises against using it to do your strength training.“Even though it’s a different type of stimulus than running, strength training is still a physical stress on the body that causes micro-damage to the muscles. It also places stress on the nervous system because we need to recruit those sensorimotor units to lift weights,” she says. “On a true rest day, we want to minimize load across all those various bodily systems and also give ourselves a mental reset to reduce stress.”Instead, pair your strength workout with a run day (particularly if you’re running five to six days a week), just separate them by a few hours.Morrow sees similar mistakes with the runners he coaches. “I’ll tell an athlete they’re going to take a day off, and they see that as a perfect opportunity to do chores like yard work,” he says. “But the body doesn’t differentiate between that and a five-mile run—it only understands time and effort.”While a six-hour bout of squatting in the yard, getting up and down, picking weeds, and moving rocks isn’t running, it’s still a decent effort with a long duration, he explains. “So from the body’s perspective, that rest day is no longer a rest day,” he says.You can still do some light movement on your rest days, though. Morrow says this is not an invitation to become one with the couch for 20 hours. “I want you to go for a walk, or get up and move around a bit,” he says. “This promotes more blood flow to get nutrients moving to your muscles, which helps you recover.” Just remember to keep the effort light—below any effort you’d put in on a run.Plus, he adds that sitting around all day can leave you feeling stiff and sluggish, which can make the next day’s effort feel more difficult.When he’s not putting in miles, Morrow likes a relaxed 30- to 45-minute hike at a local park with his daughter, throwing a baseball around with his son, and checking a few easy errands off his to-do list. Similarly, Norris catches up on chores, grocery shops, reads a book, or watches a movie.Regardless of what you choose, remember that these recovery days matter just as much as your long runs, easy runs, tempo workouts, and interval sessions, says Norris. “Rest is not the avoidance of training,” she adds, quoting the great Jack Daniels. “It is part of training.”Morgan is a gear editor who has been with Runner’s World since 2017. She started as an intern ghostwriting The Warmup, a bygone version of the daily RW newsletter. Now, she tests and reviews anything you might find on runners’ feet-from crew socks and compression boots to carbon-plated super shoes. A lifelong runner and shoe geek, Morgan has been chasing the perfect pair of kicks since she joined her grade school cross-country team. Since then, she ran as a Division I walk-on for the cross-country and track & field teams at the University of Delaware, where she studied English and Biology. She has one full marathon under her belt, and has raced more halfs and 5Ks than she can count.