If you had asked me 7-8 months ago why I wasn’t taking a rest day I would have easily told you it was because I didn’t need one. You see as long as I can remember (at least since he stared running) Wes has ran almost every day. The only time I’ve seen him not run is the two days before a marathon or during injury.
When I first started running I took several rest days a week, however, when I really started to get into running I got carried away and thought I should copy what Wes was doing and ran every day. Sure, it worked for several months but I slowly began to burn out and eventually dealt with a series of injuries which landed me with a stress fracture.
To be fair, the stress fracture was a result of doing many things incorrectly but you get the point.
Friday morning I woke up and was looking forward to my rest day. In fact, the entire time Thursday as I was running I kept thinking “tomorrow you get to rest.”
In fairness this was probably for several reasons:
- We are heading to a concert Friday night and I was excited to relax
- I need a rest day. After 7 days of running in high heat my body was tired.
- Rest days allow me to reset not only my body but my mind.
- It gives me time to focus on other things.
This morning I woke up and headed to my computer to do my morning blog reading. Accompanied by coffee and cereal (I haven’t had coffee ALL week!)
I spent the next hour cleaning since my mother-in-law is coming to stay tonight. It was actually really relaxing.
After I had finished I hoped in the car to go get Wes from his run. I decided to bring the pup along, because lets face it every drive is better with a cute dog in the car!
We had a little bit of time to kill before my mother-in-law arrived so I decided to get to work in the kitchen baking something I knew she’d like.
She has been loving mint chocolate chip anything lately, so I decided to try out making some Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes.
Even though this picture is terrible, the cupcakes themselves turned out great and tasted delicious.
The icing on the other hand didn’t do quite as well as I had hoped. I was hoping for a thicker icing, but for some reason it turned out too runny. I may have to give these a go ago again in the future to try and get it right. Even though the icing didn’t turn out as I would have wanted, they were still delicious!
After my mother-in-law arrived we ran a few errands and then went and had some dinner!
Margarita anyone!?
I guess the point of this rather random post, is that it’s okay to have complete rest day. Rest days where you eat what you want, drink what you want and do what you want. Days where you don’t think about running and simply relax. I think so often we get caught up in our runs, schedules etc that we forget to just sit back and relax.
Friday I relaxed. I didn’t run, I enjoyed delicious food (not all of which was pictured), and spent time with people I love! It was perfect.
Do you ever have days where you just do/eat whatever you feel like?
How do you like to spend your rest days?
When I was marathon training I would do my long run super early on a sat morning, knowing the rest of the weekend was just rest, no running, no thinking about running, etc. It worked out well! I love running but I need at least one day a week of total rest! Good for you for having a great rest day 🙂
Completely agree! That one day of complete rest each week makes all the difference!
I love my rest days! Besides running relaxing is other favorite thing to do! 🙂 Especially because I feel so much better for my long run! Those cupcakes and margarita look so delicious!!
They were both SO delicious! I definitely could tell the rest day helped on my long run this morning.
Rest days are so important for our bodies! I usually take one or two a week for my body, but rarely do I have an all around rest day. Hard to come by with a couple of kids!
That is true! I don’t have kids yet so I am able to take a complete rest day, but I know at some point I’ll be right there with you!
I love those days! I used to be the same way- never wanting to take a rest day. But now I realize that when I listen to my body’s needs I perform better and feel better!
So true! My body performs SO much better when I give myself a day to rest and recover!
i think we need rest weeks! totally does a body good, and you need that. glad you enjoyed your day friend.
Thanks Lindsay! 🙂
I love having a day where I do absolutely nothing. Sometimes I end up busy on a rest day from running, or I’ll do some light yoga, but once a month or so I literally sit on the couch all day and it is wonderful:)
Couch days are sometimes the BEST days!
I take a rest day every single week, but never stop moving on it (unless I am sick and then I do not get off the couch). I wake up super early to walk 2.25 miles with my dogs and a friend. Then I grab a treat on the way home (usually breakfast burrito or pastry). After work I savor the time that I am not swimming and clean the house, playing with the pups, walk and get ice cream, etc. Love it!
Sounds like a wonderful way to start the morning!
I run 6 days a week. One day is rest or light cross training just to stay active!
Sounds exactly like what I do Matt. I typically will take a full rest day.
I definitely look forward to my rest days! Just like you said, it helps me push through the final day or two of runs knowing I have recovery time coming. Netflix and I are usually best friends on these days.
Oh yes Netflix is my BFF!!!