Anyone else find running addictive but know they need a rest day?

[rudehealth]

I love running every morning. It sets me up for the day, both mentally and physically.

I know I shouldn’t run every day but on the mornings I don’t - I feel a bit agitated.

Do others find this? Is it ok to run every day?

My runs are between 6-10k and a good strong pace.

It's fine to run every day.

You're "rest day" can be, for example, a flat 5k route. Or a sedate 6km in which you're not pushing for speed.

It would be something to run 16km every day. Or to run 10k at your maximum speed 7 days a week, chasing PB times on every run. Or to do challenging, steep hills every run.

But the idea of daily exercise is to have a schedule so that you have some easy days and some harder days. For example:

Sunday - 2h-3h long slow run
Monday - 5km mid-low intensity
Tuesday - 10k interval or pyramid run
Wednesday - 1h flat mid intensity
Thursday - Hill repeats
Friday - 5km high intensity
Saturday - 5km mid-low intensity

Oh, and for what it's worth I run every day.

I tend to alternate 5km and 10km runs Monday - Saturday, 3 of each. Then on Sunday try for a longer 2h run. One of the 5km and 10km each week will be a fast paced PB chasing speed, the others just leisurely, enjoyable pace.

Why don’t you try cross trainings? Pilates or weights or something.
Variety the spice of life and all that. Good for your body too.

A lot of people do run every day and that's fine. Rest days are encouraged as a way to let your muscles recover and adapt to training. If you do run every day it would be better to vary the pace & intensity as FATE says. Cross training is a good alternative; be careful that you do not develop an exercise addiction

I wish I found running addictive. I’d probably be less fat I see no reason why you shouldn’t run every day?

Out of interest did you always find running addictive or has the "addiction" crept up on you? (Hoping for some sort of exercise to become addictive Smiley ).

One of my friends runs a gym with her DH and they are both personal trainers.

A 5km run is so insignificant to her that she uses it as a warm up. So it's not even considered "proper exercise", it's just the thing you do to prepare your body for the proper exercise.

She not only runs every day, she runs multiple times every day. She might run a 5km high pace warm up before doing a weights session, then a 5km low intensity cool down run after finishing. Then do another 5km warm up run in preparation for her evening classes at gym. Or maybe she'll lead a 10km/10 mile long run with someone she's the PT for. This woman is uber fit obviously, but it goes to show that running every day is fine.

Why don’t you try cross trainings? Pilates or weights or something.
Variety the spice of life and all that. Good for your body too.

I don’t just run, sorry should have made that clear

I do pump 2x a week and hot yoga 2x a week.

I’m in two minds about running tomorrow am. It’ll be my fifth in a row and I know I have a very fast 11k run in Saturday with a friend. But then I’ve checked the weather and it looks lovely and fresh tomorrow at 6ish, which is when I head out in the morning

I’ll see how I sleep

Thanks for thoughts

@MrsFogi

Crept up

Oh and one swim

Thanks rudehealth, to have any hope of such an addiction creeping up on me I suspect the first step would be to actually start running/so some exercise

You could try Couch to 5k MrsFogi.

It wasn't necessarily the running in itself that became addictive for me, it was exercising every day. It could have been any exercise really, it happened to be running for me. I started with a pledge to walk every day, then run every day, then 5k every day and it grew from there.

Once I was in the routine of doing it every single day, it became a big thing not to 'break the chain' (for want of a better phrase). Because I always went out every day, I always want to go out every day and it feels very unnatural to miss even one day occasionally, let alone a day or two a week.

Go on @mrsfogi

Whilst the weather is decent, go for a run. Early, no one about, peaceful, just lovely