Rest Day Blues - Relax Every Second To Train to the Top

Something very interesting happened today.  I called up my coach and he told me to take a rest day.  Honestly, I was not expecting that. I was expecting to hear my normal amount of milage for the day plus some other heavy duty lifting but instead he called for the rest day.  Then something else happened, I was sad.  Sad that I was told to stay put for the day, to do nothing but rest.  Usually I welcome the rest day.  But today, I was bewildered by my overwhelming desire to get out there. To get going.  Maybe it was that I had two rest days last week, maybe it was the fact that I am coming off of the best run of the summer on Saturday (more on that tomorrow I promise) or maybe it was because I felt like all I have done this past week is eat and feel the need to work some of it off.

The first two reasons I get.  But the third I will leave.  I have never been a big fan of just exercising because I ate too much.   I tried that once, it did not get me far.  Don't get me wrong, absolutely exercise is essential to losing weight and remaining healthy.  But I do not prescribe to the one day I eat and now I have to go running policy, that leads to no good and honestly is not the way I motivate myself to run. I run for fitness, fun, and friends and if there is any other reason in there than I need to re-examine my running.

So today I had to put on the breaks.  Realize that even though I had the most amazing run on Saturday and even though I had two rest days last week and even though I am feeling like I "should" run to burn off my breakfast, that these are not the right answers. The right answer is today is a rest day.  It is needed and it is appropriate.  If I am going to push my body and expect it to run a marathon I am going to do it for the right reasons and in the safest manner possible.  I am known for way too many injuries and I do not want to head down that road again.  So now, I am staying put. I am reminding myself all the things that I love about rest days - the ability to be in my PJs all day, to let my muscles relax, to watch tv and read blogs, and to rejuvenate and let my body ready itself.  Tomorrow is a four mile day and then in comes elliptical training and weights.  I need to be ready for that and to do that it means today is a rest day so I remember this...

REST

R - Relax

E - Every 

   S - Second

                       T - To Train To the Top