Does running ruin your rest day?

Between Covid and the holidays, I've put on a few pounds, so I'm taking up running in the mornings in addition to my usual climbing because I can do it more often than climbing (in the past I've run 6 days/week without issues) and it burns a lot of calories compared to other exercises. I'm running 4-8 miles depending on how I'm feeling and whether I've gotten up early enough to run the longer distances before work.

The last time I ran regularly I wasn't climbing, so I wanted to know what people's experiences are with running on your days off from climbing. It mostly uses different muscles, and it's more of a cardio workout than a workout even for the muscles it uses (it's not like distance runners have massive glutes). I'm not really hoping the running will help my climbing (beyond what losing ~10 pounds will do), I'm just hoping it won't interfere with my climbing.

Use a calorie counting app if you wanna lose weight. 

I run on training/climbing days. I've found if I run on rest days it negatively effected my climbing the following day. 

If I wanna get in a lil jog in on rest days, I'll hit the treadmill at full incline for about 2 miles. It'd probably be better if I just walked an hour at full incline on rest days 

There's some interesting and varying schools of thought on this. But one thing they all seem to agree on: intake is paramount when it comes to weight. What you eat and how much of it. 

Some coaches lean hard on the important of good weight/strength training and monitoring what you eat as opposed to trying to run lbs off. But that's if you're already in a training program. So I guess it depends on what your climbing/training looks like, and what your goals are for climbing. 

I really enjoying running and jumping rope, but since I started a 12-week structured training program I have noticed it robbing my piggy bank on rest days. I might start adding it on training days only. 

no

Yes, in my experience.  I noted much higher energy levels when hip problems forced me to stop running. 

Famous Raymus wrote:

Use a calorie counting app if you wanna lose weight. 

Already on it. Using LoseIt App.

So it sounds like the rough consensus is that it does ruin rest days. I'll keep that in mind.

Rest days should be for just that: rest. If you're choosing to run on some days when you're not climbing, you should also make sure to incorporate at least a day week where you're doing neither. You might not feel it at first, but overtime your body will grow tired, especially if you're unaccustomed to training aerobic endurance. It's very possible to run and climb on the same day, especially if you're just doing comparatively easy runs, but choosing to run on a day where you're not climbing no longer means its a rest day.

I mean any additional fitness workload is going to add stress to your system, but over time (months), you should adapt. "rest days" don't necessarily mean, "don't do anything days" - that's absolutely ridiculous. It can mean, "just go sub-maximal". If one is talking about overtraining - we haven't gotten close to that, yet.

If the problem is you gained ten pounds of fat, part of the solution may be to start running more - I do support that. You're going to have to look at your diet (eat healthier) and the amount of calories you're consuming (a little less than maintenence) to get those pounds down.  Again think long view: MONTHS from now, what's going to hurt your climbing? It ain't going to be that few months where you ran 6 days/week, a few miles/day you'll ruing over while having an impossbile time getting past that third bolt on your proj.

Depends on how long/how hard you run, and how long/how hard you climb. :)

Does an hour-long approach hike with a heavy pack affect your climbing? Will a run you intend to do leave you sore the next day, because your muscles are unused to running? If not, then an hour of running the day before won’t affect your climbing with 5 min approach the next day.

Whether you would lose weight with the running— depends, too. I know some people who stay away from too much running or cycling because it builds (heavy) leg muscles that are not helping with climbing. And if you aren’t careful with calorie intake, the running can make you feel hungrier, so you would eat more, and compensate for the calories lost while running. Conversely, if you restrict your calories too much, it would be the weight loss, rather than running, that would be making you tired, and affecting the climbing.

IMO, go for a run a few times on your rest days, try not to eat more as a result of increased physical activity, and see how it makes you feel.

yeah, like others said it greatly depends on what type of climbing you are doing, what type of running you are doing, etc.  if i was training to climb hard sport i would never run on a rest day (or on any day for that matter). if i was training for long alpine routes i would probably do medium-long easy runs (or hikes) on rest days.

Running ruins any day.

Roger Briggs, who has climbed the Diamond over 100 times - including some pretty hard FA's, was also the cross country coach at the Boulder High School. 

A little running ain't going to hurt your climbing. Your lats just don't fall off, and your ass just doesn't grow three times its current size. Who knows? A little conditioning could go a long way. "metabolic health" is a thing.

I both run & climb a lot, and I'd say the answer is "it depends", as much as that suck as an answer. You CAN have it not impact, and even be beneficial.

For recovery, it mostly depends on your running fitness and how hard/long you run. A moderate exercise is actually GOOD for recovery, assuming you're not using the same muscle groups to much. When I was running competitively, we'd have both active & total recovery days. Active recovery would be a different activity (swimming was good because it more upper body & doesn't have impacts as running do), with the goal of raising your HR to the lower end of your aerobic zone.

What's aerobic? Basically means you can hold a conversation while doing it, if you don't have a cardio watch and/or don't know your zones. Another decent measure to know you're doing it right is if you can confortably breath in through your nose (exhale however you want). At least for me, the correspondance with the HR zones & being able to do that conformtably is pretty good. My HR for this type of run is 110-130 bpm, but that's going to be very person specific.

Recovery is not a magic thing that happens at rest - it's just your body doing its job or repairing broken tissues, reinforcing those structures & eliminating metabolic wastes. It does that all the time. A lite exercise can help boost that process actually - because there's nothing magic about your base metabolism lying on the couch that says THAT level of activity is optimal for recovery. In fact, a slightly higher level of activity is optimal.

If you want to maximize recovery with your run, err on the side of too slow - ANY level of activity above standing still while remaining at the low end of aerobic will be better than no activity at all.

EDIT: just remembered you said you started/restarted running. That may changes things a bit - having run competitively, and at least a few times a month more or less all my life, my body is really used to it. If you goal is recovery, you may consider splitting up your longer runs into 2 runs (e.g. one morning & one evening for example). You may also want to consider including walk intervales in your run. The point being that if you run above your "easy running" capacity, then you body will need to do some work as well to recover from the run. Even if they're not the same muscles groups as climbing, your body can only do so much overall, and then perhaps your recovery from climbing/training for climbing may be hindered.

Pay attention to your body after your run & the next morning. If you feel soreness, stiff muscles, you likely went too hard or too long.

Franck Vee wrote:

EDIT: just remembered you said you started/restarted running. That may changes things a bit - having run competitively, and at least a few times a month more or less all my life, my body is really used to it.

Just to address this a bit: before I started climbing, I ran a few half marathons and one marathon. I haven't run in a while, but the distances I'm running now aren't necessarily a huge challenge for me.

Long Ranger wrote:

Roger Briggs, who has climbed the Diamond over 100 times - including some pretty hard FA's, was also the cross country coach at the Boulder High School. 

A little running ain't going to hurt your climbing. Your lats just don't fall off, and your ass just doesn't grow three times its current size. Who knows? A little conditioning could go a long way. "metabolic health" is a thing.

There's a small, but fundamental difference between yelling at kids to run faster and actually doing the running yourself :) kind of kidding because RB is one of the all time greats, without question.

I prefer to combine my run day ( kinda slow still) w a climb day. my old gym training routine mixed run and climb days. Helped push a few grades on plastic, but was brutal till my body finished adapting and friends helped get my nutrition half decent. On rock I felt mentally stronger the few times I've ran a couple of hours before climbing.

I run every day and am totally fine but I ran in college. It totally depends on how your body personally responds. As others have said rest is where progress is made. If your bored you could measure your performance on a hangboard running versus not running. Eric Horst and Tom Randall encourage running.

if you are trying to send your project the following day at your absolute limit, yes it is likely ruining your rest day. if you aren't project climbing or really pushing for harder grades then i doubt it really matters.

In running terms from my early adulthood, we used to call it LSD: Long Slow Distance.  It was a recovery day, and meant a slower pace while staying active.  I apply this to a lower degree to my 40 year old body now.  Take a rest day and prioritize rest.   Staying active is good though. Now, instead of running on my day off, I do a a fast paced yoga or dig some holes in the garden.

In running terms from my early adulthood, we used to call it LSD: Long Slow Distance.  It was a recovery day, and meant a slower pace while staying active.  I apply this to a lower degree to my 40 year old body now.  Take a rest day and prioritize rest.   Staying active is good though. Now, instead of running on my day off, I do a a fast paced yoga or dig some holes in the garden.