Tuesday Shakeout: Rest
Recovery weeks always seem to happen when you least want them, but you should still embrace them anyway
I feel like the following scenario happens more often than any of us would like to admit: Imagine you are getting back into the swing of things after a long layoff due to an injury. Your body feels good, your mood feels dramatically better now that you’re running again, and you’ve finally built up some positive momentum for the first time in months.
You know what’s coming: Rest week. The last thing you want to do is take a rest week. Not now! Not when the numbers on your GPS watch are glowing green with fitness gains while the arrow on the bar graphs keep going up, up, up. And yet, a rest week is exactly what you’re going to get.
Of course, this is the perfect time to take a step back. Those recent fitness gains need space to settle into our system and become adaptations. Plus, as any analytically-inclined sports fan can tell you, momentum is merely an illusion. What matters is the slow, steady arc of progress over months and years, not weeks or days.
That’s the mentality I’m trying to take into my latest rest week. Even though deep down I really want to keep hammering, I know this period of rest and recovery is all for the best. Besides, there will be plenty of time to get back to hardcore training in the new year as I get ready for Boston.
This week for paid subscribers, we offer a closer look into the training schedule including deconstructing a couple of short workouts that prove quality > quantity. Plus, exploring new trails, and early thoughts about running that marathon on the third Monday in April.