Sunday, October 5, 2008

The Importance of Rest

Well, this week we didn’t do a lot of training & running as a group. We had a great RollerCoaster workout on Monday, then a tough windy workout on Thursday, and that was pretty much it as group. Beth & I missed seeing everyone on Saturday, it was the first Saturday morning in long time that Otis didn’t get his weekly WTAFC dosage.

But, the week that we had (three easy long runs, a couple extra active rest days) is really going to help us in the long term. As a program, we always seem to struggle in the immediate aftermath of rest days. I think that is why Thursday was so hard for us. But, in the weeks that come, this rest will help us out a lot as a team. Resting helps the muscular mitochondria grow back in greater numbers, it gives our lungs a break to recover from breathing so hard every day. It allows our mind to re-charge, to let that hunger for speed grow again, and to give us some perspective on what we are trying to accomplish. Prescribed rest, measured rest, disciplined rest, is the only way to truly break through to other levels in our running, which is why this past week was so important for us.

So, last week was our rest week, now we are jumping right back into the normal routine. Keep your eyes on the schedule on the left side of the page, but we are going to go with Mondays will be RollerCoasters at Sierra, Wednesdays are a long run behind Sierra, and Fridays are repeat kilos at Sierra. Saturday, we will be back at my house to do a long run with some tempo and technique work (and a trip to Einstein’s Bagels) for some Otis face time.

SEP

P.S. Hopefully everyone has their plane tickets for Arizona, things are coming together quickly!

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