The Quiet Season  Advice from the top on taking time off and
coming back  November 1, 2005  To paraphrase Ecclesiastes, to
every workout, there is a season. Most runners instinctively
grasp this concept, or if they don’t, soon have the lesson
imparted the hard way, suffering injury, illness, or simple
burnout if they fail to include some sort of downtime in their
yearly schedule.  In some parts of the country, a relative
competitive hiatus is imposed by the weather; in the northern
winters and southern summers, the race calendar becomes sparse,
and most runners throttle back accordingly, into a mode of easy
maintenance mileage. And even in those temperate parts of the
country where it’s possible to race and train hard year-round,
either the body or the psyche will eventually beg for, and
sometimes demand, a period of easy running. "No matter what
level you’re at, a substantial rest period at least once a year
is essential," says Alan Culpepper, the top American in this
year’s Boston Marathon.  Many times, the