What counts as a day of rest? Some training schedules require that you take one day a week and do absolutely nothing, but nothing? Not a walk, not yoga, not a ten minute ab video? It's hard to determin what constitutes rest. Is it just a day away from running, or is it a day of complete sloth?
Today is my planned day of rest, and in some ways my body needs it -- Sunday I ran 5 miles, Monday I did arms and yoga, and yesterday I ran five miles, so I'm a little stiff. Yet, a part of me finds it difficult to take a day off. I feel guilty for some reason, and feel completely unjustified eating that piece of cake. At least when I ate the cake yesterday I could say, "It's alright, I ran five miles this morning."
4 comments:
Rest is relative. To a runner, it means "time off of your feet." You can still do other things, (including cycling), but as long as you're not pounding your two dogs on the surface of the earth, you're "resting."
Have a restful day!
Wednesday is always rest day for me. I don't do anything.
My problem with running though is all the food I think I can eat. For instance Saturday I ran 8 miles. So I deserve every morsel of food in the house. And I wonder why I can't lose weight.
Rest and don't feel guilty. Your body needs it. Rest means take a day off and don't feel obligated to do anything at all. And eat your cake. If you don't take a day off you deny your muscles the chance to recover and thus it is much harder for them to actually become more fit. I know its painful sometimes, but its essential to improving and recovering.
Oddly enough, I feel obsessively guilty about rest days, even though I know I always have my best runs after a day off. Still, I think you look forward to your run that much more if you force yourself to wait for it. And of course, it's good for you, blah blah blah
While you wait... give a good home to a lonely, well-deserved piece of cake...
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