A writer for Outside Online reached a point familiar to many obsessed trail-goers: packing for yet another mountain day and feeling nothing but dread. His solution came from an old high school cross-country coach's rule — a mandatory off-season — and it turns out that logic applies to hiking just as well as it does to running.
Endurance athletes have long embraced structured rest. Trail running coaches typically prescribe two to six weeks completely off after a big objective, followed by months of unstructured movement or cross-training. Cyclists and triathletes sometimes rest for up to two months. Hikers, by contrast, tend to treat their sport as something that never requires a pause — it's just walking, after all.
The science suggests otherwise. In 2021, German researchers had a group of walkers cover 60 miles on foot within 24 hours, testing their health markers before and after. The results resembled those of ultramarathon finishers. Low-intensity, long-duration effort like a long day on the trail creates muscular and metabolic stress comparable to high-intensity running events. Stack up enough big hikes and your body needs recovery planning worthy of an ultra runner.
Mental fatigue matters just as much. Cumulative stress — physical and emotional — builds up when a hobby starts feeling like an obligation. The author's own experiment: no more long hikes above treeline, and cutting time on legs from four days a week down to one. A month later, the enthusiasm was back. Hiking felt curious and exciting again rather than exhausting.
How do you know it's time for your own off-season? Watch for these warning signs: you're enjoying hikes less than before, thinking about quitting altogether, feeling slower despite consistent training, or tired all the time. Planning your next trip feels overwhelming. Rest days trigger guilt or anxiety. And when you do get out, it's from pressure rather than genuine excitement.
For holiday travellers, this is a useful lens. If you've been planning trail-heavy trips and finding yourself drained rather than refreshed, it might be worth designing a different kind of holiday — one built around towns, food, museums, or coastlines instead of summits. Then, when the mountains call again, you'll actually want to answer.
The takeaway is refreshingly simple: physiologically, how much rest you need depends on your training load, but mentally, the rule of thumb is that if you feel like you need a break, you probably do. Stepping back for a few weeks won't erase your fitness, but it might just save your love of the trail.
Outside Online
