Friday, February 24, 2012

Rest

I was talking to my mom today about how I feel a cold coming on and whether taking cold medicine three times today instead of just twice would help as a preventative measure. She said that drinking water and getting rest will do more good than extra medicine at this point. I sheepishly responded that I already drink a lot of water... but what went unsaid was that I don't get enough rest. I'm a night owl and it's rare that I get to bed before midnight. And even once I get in bed I usually read or surf the Internet for awhile before finally drifting off to sleep. I always tell myself that I'll do better tomorrow or catch up over the weekend, but of course it never happens.

I also looked back at my workout log and realized that today is only the second rest day I've taken since January 7. And if I go back a bit further than that, I've only had three rest days since December 28. Hmmm, no wonder I'm getting sick again.

Part of the reason for the lack of rest days was because of the Fairhaven Runners 30 day challenge that I've mentioned previously. Their rules were to work out everyday for 30 days, which I did. But my personal goal was to run at least 1.5 miles everyday. Since I got snowed out of running just four days in, I extended my daily run for four days after the challenge ended so I could truly say that I completed what I set out to do.

Then I promptly ended the running streak the next day. I actually did consider keeping it going, but I had to drive down to Seattle last Saturday to get my car serviced and the gym was closed by the time I got back and I didn't feel like running in the rain. Yeah, I'm making excuses, but I think I deserved a rest day.

Today is also a rest day because I'm supposed to be running a 10k tomorrow and then I've got a long 16 mile training run scheduled for Sunday. I wrote "supposed to" like I'm still considering it, but really I've decided that unless something super crazy happens I'm going to run the race, even with the forecast showing 90% chance of rain. I know it's not the wisest thing to do when I'm not feeling well, but I really hate the thought of DNS-ing a race. I'd rather run it easy then completely skip it.

Anyway, where was I going with this... basically that my mom's advice today reminded me of the importance of rest. Both in getting enough sleep and giving my body a chance to recover between workouts. Now if I could just get better at actually following that advice...

2 comments:

  1. rest is so important- i had a horrible bout with ITBS last year bc I just kept pushing through. Now I'm so paranoid that its hard for me to follow a 'plan' because if something doesn't feel right, I take a day off (and that would drive me crazy if i had 'scheduled' a run--- fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl

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  2. Rest is a needed priority when your body is asking for it. I am doing the same now after too many races. Enjoy this time!! When you start up again you'll feel rejuvenated :)

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