Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Getting into the rest.

Yesterday was a rest day. I've decided that throughout my training I will schedule a complete rest day after my long runs. Knowing my age, mechanics and ability, this seems to be the wisest thing to do ensure I'm able to start my marathon as strong and healthy as possible. I'll stretch and do some super-easy walking on my rest days but, other than that, I'll be resting. Feet up, sparkling water and a never-ending bowl of fruit salad at my side . . .

Whoops! Daydreaming again. Scratch that last thought.

Anyway, I seem to like this rest even if it involves "running" around after a toddler, cleaning up in the wake of his destruction. So much so, that today is a rest day, too! Look at me go, rocking the rest schedule! Happy Rester, oh yeah.

Since my schedule will be full of rest (I'll balance rest with 4 runs per week: one long, one medium, one tempo/Yassos/other hard and one easy run), I need to create a resting plan. So, I'm looking to you guys: What do you do on rest days? Should I really cross-train? As I stated above, I plan to do a little light walking and stretching on my rests days. But I do wonder if I should do more than that. Can't bike: This clumsy gal is NOT a cyclist. Can't swim: No access.

Knowing my body and my ability to get stressed out I'm leaning toward walking and stretching only on my rest days. But I want to make sure I'm doing everything I possibly can to cross the finish line in under 4 hours. Any suggestions?

16 comments:

BeachRunner said...

Are you actually obsessing about the REST days? You may be worse than me with my obsessive blogging on training.

I kid. You are much worse than me. :)

Walking and stretching (along with the rest of your busy life) sounds just fine to me for rest days. Give this rest plan a week or two of implementation and see how it works for you.

Diana said...

It's not like you're sitting on the couch being a bum! But, I'm not even the realm of marathon, so I won't be good for anything but a cheerleader :)

Marlene said...

I prefer to take a COMPLETE rest day after my long run day. I recover better that way. To each his/her own. I love rest days... I'm still lazy at heart. lol

RunToTheFinish said...

I can't do complete rest days, they actually leave me tired. So I do stretching and walking on those days.

I haven't been biking or swimming, but have started to try and work in things like kick boxing or other DVD's I can do at home for cross training. I largely did this after my doc explained that running only utilizes the muscles in a forward motion and without working the other muscles around it you are more likely to get injured if you land in a pothole, etc.

Denise said...

Although I can't do a rest day b/c I feel like I'm losing my mind, I do think we all should be taking them...more often than we do. If you have to do something, stretching and walking is a great idea.

Aron said...

stretching and walking would both be great! i like to at least take one full day off of everything :)

Marcy said...

I don't do anything LMAO! Well other than the norm running after the kids. If you really need to do something though . . .what about exercise tv on demand?!?

Unknown said...

Let me state up front that I have a jaded opinion.

I never got injured when I triathlon trained (no more than 2-3x per week each of running, biking, swimming). I became injured after two months of focussed run training.

My opinion is run no more than 3 days a week, cross train (doing 2-a-days if needed), and always include a rest day once a week.

J said...

I have heard that cross training is good with marathon training, so maybe walking is a good idea, and definitely stretching! Maybe just once a week XT and the other days, like after a long run, you really rest!

Casey said...

Rest days would be more fun if they were called "Box o' Wine and Watch a Movie Days".

Marci said...

I like one full day off with nothing. I'd rather add cross training into my easy or recovery run days.

Mark said...

I like your training plan with 4 run days. Rest to me is invaluable! During marathon training I will try, but not obsess over, to get a two mile walk. Treadmill or other. I'll park farther away from stores etc,
Mark

X-Country2 said...

I need the full day of rest on my rest days. I'll stretch and MAYBE lift arms if I'm itching to do something, but nothing cardio-related.

Midwest said...

I'm planning on doing a bit of core strengthening on lighter days.

joyRuN said...

Somehow my rest days are either filled with running around from school to school to errand, or the day after working a night shift so I couldn't even begin to do anything even if I wanted to.

Sorry - that doesn't help.

Lori said...

Rest days are so important for the body. I don't mean staying in bed all day, but taking a break from structured exercise all together.

I know I am in the minority here, but I feel when we can't take a break from exercise we are becoming a bit obsessed with it. Wellness should be balanced there should be other things in our lives that we can invest in that bring us stress relief, health, etc.

Exercise causes damage to our muscle fibers. We grow stronger when those fibers repair themselves. They can't repair themselves if we don't give them a break.

Sorry, don't mean to go on and on. I am just a believer in a real rest day for both physical and mental health.

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