It’s the most wonderful time of the year. No, not Christmas—it’s fall offseason, that delightfully indulgent week or two when the marathon build is over and the cross spikes are cleaned of mud for the final time. Unless you’re one of the lucky few trying to stretch XC fitness into a fast 5000m at BU or tapering down for CIM/Valencia/Marathon Project, odds are you crossed the finish line at your turkey trot with no other race on the horizon.

And that’s great! As fun and exciting as it can be to rip a hard long run or smash a PB, you can’t have the highs without the lows. In this case, the “low” isn’t even an emotional one; it’s the 7-14 days of coach-mandated lethargy that every training cycle needs. Now is the time to eat the second slice of pie and drink that second beer. Hit snooze on that 5am alarm—or better yet, turn it off entirely. Send your Garmin into a panic by cratering your daily step count and projected race times.

As every good coach and long-tenured athlete will tell you, time off is just as important as time on. Odds are, the greatest runners you can think of take their postseasons even more seriously than you do. Sifan Hassan didn’t train for three months following her triple at the Paris Olympics. Nick Willis believes that a key to his two decades of success was prolonged periods of rest. Maximizing outcomes in the long term means that, sometimes, those zero mile weeks are actually rolling the boulder up the hill.

Often, that’s easier said than done. We runners are creatures of compulsion habit, and while a day off, or two, or three, can feel like a welcome reprieve, stretching the down time over a week starts that little voice in your head chattering, your trainers whispering to you like the Green Goblin mask. A couple weeks away coming out of a long—maybe too long—season can feel amazing, but the tougher sell is when you’re riding the high of a great last race and are dying to dive back in. Don’t!

Some runners truly live to train. Sure, the race medals and Instagram-bio PRs are fun trinkets of social status, but nothing quite hits like racking up kudos day in and day out. A 100-mile week is just a stepping stone to 110. Running a double threshold just means twice the intervals. Stocking up on gels the night before a long run is better than digging into a bag full of Halloween candy.

If that sounds like you, you need this message more than anyone else. Just because not running doesn’t provide the same grinding satisfaction doesn’t mean it’s just as important an element of training to conquer. If it helps, write yourself a weekly plan: your goal is three days minimum of afternoon naps; 2x drinks with coworkers, and at least 17 episodes of your favorite TV series. Can you achieve it?

It may sound silly, but embracing the offseason is one of the most underappreciated and critical elements of building a healthy long-term relationship with the sport. The old adage that “absence makes the heart grow fonder” is true, but so is the converse: all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Or a burnt-out boy. Or a boy who loves running now, but for whom the ceaseless weeks, months, and years will one day take a physical and mental toll that sours that passion.

And if you’re reading this weekly newsletter, the odds are good that you’re someone who maybe needs to be reminded every once in a while that there are other sources of joy in life. All those hobbies you never have time for because you’ve got to get your afternoon double in. All those non-running friends whose social plans stretch past your bedtime. Now is the time to pick up something else, anything, that brings excitement and happiness into your life. If you’re lucky, you’ll come back with a new routine that incorporates new, fun, non-running things while still delivering that sweet, sweet hit of dopamine that only miles can provide. A true win-win!

So consider this your permission slip or doctor’s note to live a little. The air is cold and the days are short, so who wants to be outside anyway? Depending on your age, there’s probably a work holiday party waiting to be livened up or a post-finals rager to attend. Heck, maybe there’s just a friend you haven’t met up with for coffee in a while or a book you’ve been meaning to read. ‘Tis the season of not running, and it’s time to celebrate.

For more of the top stories and analysis from the biggest stories in track and field from the past week, subscribe to The Lap Count newsletter for free. New edition every Wednesday morning at 6:00 a.m. ET.