[Silviana Ciurea Ilcus]

When I get my period, I’m in pain for 2-3 days and cannot do almost anything at all for the first two days. I received the advice on this forum to take a recovery week during my period weeks, but I am a bit confused about how to adapt it to account for the rest days taken one after the other. Any tips?

Topic

[Coach]

Coach on June 23, 2022 at 4:32 pm #68482

I have many athletes who do this! We take two or three days off in a row if we need and count the week as recovery. I then plan all the build weeks around that. I usually suggest you get out and do an easy walk (20min) on the days you feel the worst. Getting your body moving does help even if it feels miserable in the moment. I wouldn’t take 7 days off, I would cut back the training like you would any recovery week but then take those days that are really hard as your days off and slowly build back into the week. Your rest week might not be a Monday-Sunday (as programmed) but rather a Thursday-Wednesday and that works great too!

Does that answer your question?
Maya

[Silviana Ciurea Ilcus]

Silviana Ciurea Ilcus on June 23, 2022 at 6:49 pm #68492

This is super helpful! So right now I am technically on week 7 in the base plan, but I was just going to switch weeks 7 and 8 around, and do week 8 (Recovery) this week and week 7 next week (and week 9 as originally planned the week afterwards). Would that work?
Also: can you provide a specific example of how to slowly build back into the week? For my case: Monday was my scheduled rest day (I did a call with Carolyn and we agreed on two hikes for the weekend followed by rest on Monday). Then Tuesday I was feeling awful so I took it as a day off, and on Wednesday I only managed to get in an Upper Body Strength workout. How should I proceed for the rest of the week? Apologies if this is too specific.

[Coach]

Coach on June 23, 2022 at 7:58 pm #68495

Yes that would work! I would just try to do the rest week as planned-if you don’t have the energy or feel good to do the two hikes this weekend do an easy walk and a hike or a jog and a hike. I just have my athletes take it day by day, if your energy is coming back though you can follow as planned and maybe don’t take another day off if you already took Monday/Tuesday. Make sense?
Maya