Saturday, June 18, 2011

Do You Know the Rules?

rest

I won’t go on and on about how today is a rest day and the physiological benefits of resting while training. If I were to go on about this, I would say that rest and recovery:

  • Feels VERY good if we let ourselves surrender to it.
  • Allows us to replenish energy stores and repair damaged tissues.
  • Can take you  to a higher level of fitness if you alternate pushing yourself so that your body adapts to more stress and recovering sufficiently. Remember: the greater the training intensity and effort, the greater the need for planned recovery.
  • Might have prevented my two stress fractures. Maybe. Possibly. Perhaps.

That said, it’s a fine line “There are limits to how much stress the body can tolerate before it breaks down and risks injury. Doing too much work too quickly will result in injury or muscle damage, but doing too little, too slowly will not result in any improvement.” {From HERE.}

paintball

Hmmm…rest vs. being on crutches and wearing a paintball mask. I’ll take rest. Picture from October 2010 when I had a hip stress fracture

“The most important thing you can do to recover quickly is to listen to your body. If you are feeling tired, sore or notice decreased performance you may need more recovery time or a break from training altogether. If you are feeling strong the day after a hard workout, you don't have to force yourself to go slow. If you pay attention, in most cases, your body will let you know what it needs, when it needs it. The problem for many of us is that we don't listen to those warnings or we dismiss them with our own self talk (‘I can't be tired, I didn't run my best yesterday" or "No one else needs two rest days after that workout; they'll think I'm a wimp if I go slow today.’). “

Even though I’m physically resting, my brain is still going a million miles an hour. While I’ve been trying to branch out from only reading about training, running, swimming, biking, I haven’t been that successful.

I found a little quiz in Triathlete magazine this month. It is the swimsuit edition. They asked me to be on the cover, but I had busy leaving rude anonymous comments on people’s blogs, so I couldn't do it.

Just for fun, let’s see how you score on a couple of triathlon questions that I got wrong:

001

001

Do you know the answers?

How do you incorporate recovery into your training?

SUAR

25 comments:

  1. Absolutely right girlie!!! THe rest days are sooo important!! I, for the most part, am always looking forward to them :) :)

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  2. aak! what ARE the answers? I'm guessing C for both...always a safe choice.

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  3. My recovery days are Thursdays---I only do a pilates course that night.
    I'm with Sherry---"C" for both

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  4. Hmm, yeah, definitely guessing C for the first one. I vaguely remember worrying about my iPod every time I ran a race after taking a triathlon "class" in college. So that would mean the walkman was out too.

    And for the second one, is it B? I know some people are super stickler about staying 'within the lines.'

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  5. No matter how many times I tell myself and friends to stay low when we are feeling tired from training or recovering from being sick, I can't get the anxiety out of my mind about not running, even if for a couple of days. I've been down for a week from a cold, and have a marathon tomorrow. It is KILLING me to "surrender" to or entertain the idea that it is OK not to do this race.

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  6. Unknown: surrendering and knowing when to say "when" is so tough. I can sympathize. Whatever happens, there will always be another run and another race. Think long term.

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  7. Beth-

    Can I ask a selfish favor? Can you read my blog post today about knee pain and let me know what you think? I know you are not a doctor but I value your opinion! This better not screw with my marathon training....

    andreachronicles314.blogspot.com

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  8. I'm going with C and B?

    and YES today is a rest day and man I need it

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  9. Is that Brendle AND Lucky in the Cheezit picture?

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  10. Okay a real comment now. I'm sure you loved my blanket "happy 16 years. Glad you chose the right one" comment! :) Those are my favorites. I'm think this kidney infection is good for me in a way. I wasn't doing too good of a job at playing by the post marathon rules of letting my body recover. Already had myself signed up for all kinds of big goals...a little stupid but I was listening. So getting knocked on my ass and having no choice but to lay around...this was a gift. Rest days are like taking your vitamins or shaving your bikini line....not always something we want to do but something that keeps us feeling and looking better in the long run!

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  11. Andrea - I can't comment on your blog - if you change the settings by going to settings->comments-> and selecting anything but "imbeb under post" that will help. But email me and I'll tell you what I think about the knee issue! Sounds like "runner's knee" for sure.

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  12. I have come to, in the last six months or so, understand the importance of rest. I can feel that my body is stronger after a couple of days of resting.

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  13. I didn't know that you have two dogs!

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  14. Chanda - one (the brown cockapoo) belongs to my parents. We watch her all the time, tho.

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  15. I love rest days. I have more rest days than I should because I love them so much. I just wish my rest days were more restful :P And I have no idea about those rules... but it doesn't matter cuz I will never do a real triathlon with rules! hahaahahaha!

    Enjoy your rest and your Cheez-its! Any Coors headed your way today?

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  16. Rest is huge. Last night I passed out at 830p and it was glorious sleep. I was tired all day as well so I know I needed the rest.

    This led to a great run in awful weather with no fuel (yes, I'm dumb enough to train without fuel so that my body learns other ways to get energy) and I felt so strong that I went and swam for a mile as well.

    The answers are the nalgene bottle and crawling. The crawling is a new rule and takes away from the sport in my opinion.

    Julie Moss crawled to the finish line in what most consider the start to the popularity of triathlon and now it is illegal.

    WTC is just not in touch with the real world since it is us AG'ers who make the sport. If they want to crawl let them crawl so long as nobody aids them.

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  17. I think you should do a once monthly post of what the anons say. Every so often (after they have been duly noted) my husband will bring home some of the IKEA comments that people can leave throughout the store. A 12 pak and the IKEA comment box make for a low key night of entertainment.

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  18. Alecia - you are right - they do provide a lot of entertainment. Tell your husband I've had a lot of fun leaving anon comments for IKEA. Glad I could give you guys a fun Friday night.

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  19. Beth-
    I made the change. I don't understand blogger sometimes...I have no clue why it would not allow you to comment.

    Others suggest Runners Knee as well. Any ideas how long I'm out for? Is a 5K on Wednesday a possiblity?

    Andrea

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  20. I love rest and recovery! :)

    I'm guessing Nalgene is allowed and tripping and falling off the course is not?

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  21. I'm guessing C for both - but I'm not a triathlete (yet!).

    Rest is definitely important - I'm training for my first marathon and twice in the past month I have run myself into the ground. Once with exhaustion and once with a bad head cold. I'm just now recovering from it all, with less than 3 weeks to race day.

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