Local Runner Adopts ‘1 Day On, 4 Days Off’ Training Plan
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A local runner has adopted an innovative training regimen, Dumb Runner has learned, following each day of running with four full days of rest and recovery.
Howard Johnson, 33, said he designed the plan himself and so far is pleased with the results.
“I’m feeling really rested these days,” he said. “I figure that’s due to the four days off I take after each run. On those days, I nap, read, watch TV, or just putter around the house.”
“Last week, I finished a 1,000-piece puzzle!”
Before settling on the current 1:4 ratio, Johnson said, he experimented with various other combinations of activity and recovery—running two days and taking one day off, for instance, or running every other day. In the end, he said, he settled on one day running and four days off.
Or, rather, it settled on him.
“I guess I just wasn’t feeling much like running,” he said. “I found myself putting it off and putting it off, and eventually I just found I was heading out for a run, like, once every four or five days. That’s just kind of where I landed.”
It took a while for Johnson, a six-time marathoner, to get used to that schedule—“to be OK with it,” in his words—but he got there.
“I figured, well, these are crazy times and at least I’m still running, even if it’s a fraction of what I used to do,” he said. “Also, just… meh.”
Johnson then cut the interview short, noting that it was time for his nap.
