Welcome to the Runners Connect audio blog. This article was written by Coach Jeff Gaudette and it's called

Losing Running Fitness a scientific look at how much you'll slow down when not

able to run.

How much will taking a few days off from running hurt my fitness?

It's one of the most common questions I get from runners struggling with an injury, fighting the flu, or hesitant to take a much

needed rest from training.

As runners, we are all paranoid about taking a few days off, generally thinking it will ruin our months of

meticulous training. As a coach, I'm not immune to being frightened by this

irrational fear. Well I was training for the NCAA championships while in college, I had a swimming

accident that left my left shoulder separated and required a visit to the hospital to get it

back in place. The doctors told me I

needed to take a few days off to let the shoulder heal. Not wanting to lose any

precious training time, I strapped my left arm tight across my body using a combination of

saran wrap and duct tape and went on a 12 mile run the next morning.

Luckily I didn't suffer any lingering effects from the imbalances I created by running with one arm.

However, I wanted to share this story with you to demonstrate that I write this article with the deepest

understanding of how hard it can be to listen to science

and understand that a day off isn't going to end your hopes of running as fast as you've dreamed.

When we look at the effects of taking time off from running,

we have to analyze the detraining from two perspectives.

One, your metabolic systems, such as aerobic fitness, threshold, and V.O.2. Max and to your

structural systems such as your muscles and neuromuscular coordination. How fast and how efficiently your brain can tell your body to perform

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