>Like I said - world record holders are extoling the virtues
>of rest, but of course, their intensity is never a problem.

I don't believe you. Give me specific examples. Since you're making judgements as to my intensity and my laziness (which is fair, since I used my personal experience in the first place) we'll use my frame of reference - mid-distance and distance runners. In the article by Bob Timmons, Jim Ryun's coach called "How He Trains" he has the three months before Ryun's world record 800 where he took 2 total days off. Abel Anton - no scheduled days off in any of the three "microcycles" of his training towards a 2:07 marathon. None for Frank Shorter either, the last American to medal in a distance event. Tom Fleming ran around 140 mile weeks for six years. The most scheduled rest I could find was Hicham El Guerrouj, WR holder in the 1500, who has about two days off every three weeks. If you want more recent examples, I can dig those up because I know I'm right, but thats not my point. I'm not asking anybody to train as hard as Jim Ryun did, I'm asking them to take a month to understand that they haven't even scratched the surface with regards to what their body can handle.

http://run-down.com/guests/mv_el_guerrouj.php
http://merv.stanford.edu/webbbs/halloffame-config.pl?read=81
http://merv.stanford.edu/webbbs/halloffame-config.pl?read=73
http://merv.stanford.edu/webbbs/halloffame-config.pl?read=99