Rest. 'nuff said? Not quite

"Respect the rest." That's what I heard at my first track workout. I hate track workouts, but respecting rest was something that I could really get behind. We'd run 400 meters, and practice a 1:2 work to rest ratio. Basically if it takes you 2 minutes to run around the track, you rest for 4 minutes. This was a concept that I could definitely get behind.

Triathlon is swimming, riding, and running. Ironman throws in nutrition and a complete loss of sanity (that's what my mom says anyway). Training is a completely different beast. The human body is one of the most adaptive things that we've come across. It responds to the stresses that we put upon it and consumes what we put in to it, hence my caffeine prob.. issue.. enjoyment. Most training programs for shorter distances have a standard build, you see the distances increase steadily over time then decrease just before race day.

See this 5K training plan:
Five little weeks then race day.

At longer distances, and for the day that we're training for we enter periodized training, where we ask nicely, rather force, our body and mind to take on a series of build weeks, where distance and intensity rise over the period, and then we recover. The body doesn't get stronger during the higher intensity training. That's where we're tearing small pieces of muscle, taxing our cardio systems, and getting in the mindset of being at this for the distance. It is in the recovery or rest week where our bodies do the repair work, fixing the pieces that we've broken, torn, taxed, and abused, and in doing so makes an effort to make it harder for us to do the same damage with the same amount of work. Adaptation. Without these periods of rest and recovery we'd be running on muscles desperately in need of repair, and just asking for injury.

There is no growth without challenge. Sometimes the biggest challenge for someone training is to stop or slow down for a little while. Rest. Recover. Grow. A marathon is no easy feat, nor is 100 miles of anything, much less bike riding. Build phases are relative to each other. They're timed to give you the greatest benefit over the time that we have. From week to week the results are hard to see but by completing marker sets, where you do a prescribed distance or other time trial you will see how far you've come.

Recovery is built in to most of what we do. We drink a recovery mix after workouts to prepare for the next workout even if the next workout is the fight I have with myself getting out of bed and going to work. I'd feel so much worse had I not had the drink or the sleep. After each period we rest and recover. After all the build phases we rest and recover, it's called tapering just before the race. After the race we recover, it's called a night out at the bar, and a few weeks of getting back to life. Get your sleep in. Respect the rest in the schedule it's worthwhile and necessary.