Last Friday I was pretty sure I wanted to take a rest day on Monday (today). I had a few rough workouts starting from last Saturday. Whiteleaf+3, Katahdin-3, SleepingBeauty+3, Whiteleaf+6 to name a few. In between there I had 2 group rides, 120-130TSS each on Weds and Friday. I was feeling beat down.
The plan was to sleep in. Instead, I woke up at 5:15am when my kid had to use the restroom, and tried to go back to sleep. I laid in bed for 2 hours, trying to sleep, and the entire time thinking “I should just get on the trainer for an easy spin… NO… it’s supposed to be a rest day!”. When I finally got out of bed, couldn’t help thinking that was 2 hours wasted and should have just been riding.
It’s harder than it should be to tell myself to not exercise, not cut back on the food, etc. Shouldn’t I want to feast on food and lay down like a lazy ass!??! “A body in motion stays in motion” keeps ringing through my head. Why is RESTING incredibly HARD?
So, how did you REST today (or yesterday)? What did you do?
I hate taking time off…
this morning I woke up to go for a swim but decided against it once I was on the gym…
So i just went home, took a shower and come to work!
Ha! I’m one of few people here who enjoys time away from the bike. I’ve been resting for two weeks. I didn’t touch a bike outside a 40 minute equipment test last week, and I have a similar plan this week. Time away from the saddle is time to stoke the fire - for me. If I never took a rest day, I’d hate riding. I do relate to that first rest day after a hard block of training, or break through ride/workout as I also suffer from the off-the-bike blues too. I’ve also had those early mornings where no workout was planned and rest was needed but I did a Z2 ride anyway, usually works against me in the long run.
Some important things happen for me with longer breaks, I get excited about structured training again, I get excited about strength training, and I’m even going to try throwing in some super light running this off-season. I was so excited about riding this last year but even then I had a huge lull in the summer (typical) so it’s important for me to learn to recognize burn out early and nip it in the bud. It’s a tough thing to balance as you watch fitness fade.
But, I think this is a cool thread idea and I’m sure I’ll be here on those hard off-the-bike blues days for sure!
To review all the helpful rest day advice we should know:
Once I am in bed I am OK at resting and can lie in but I get easily bored if I rest during the day and have no work etc; like today I ended up going for a 8.6 miles walk in the morning
Is the issue not doing exercise or just have nothing to do in general? Personally, I don’t like to have nothing to do, so I keep myself busy with a lot of things (job, small projects in the house and of course training keep me busy).
When I have a rest day, I use it to do stuff in the house or backyard. At least this way I remove items on my to do list and it helps with that feeling of loosing your time.
The issue is, quite honestly, an addiction to riding and training. Which turns into anxiety about being off the bike! Surely others can relate, or am I an outlier?!
And when I say rest, I mean Total Rest = No weights/No recovery rides/No jogging.
Late night/early morning disturbances are the worst! This might sound goofy, but my go-to solution now is meditation. I go into our spare room up the hall so I don’t disturb my wife and then meditate using Headspace for 10 minutes. It doesn’t have to be one of their nighttime meditations - just the act of focusing on my breathing and knowing that I am doing something helps relax me. Usually takes less than 5 minutes to get back to sleep afterward!
I take (most) every Monday fully off the bike. Today I slept in until 5:45 (9 hours in bed, 8+ of sleep), went for a nice three mile walk around the neighborhood, and ate whenever I felt hungry - but stuck to healthy whole foods.
It was a good day and I’m already looking forward to tomorrow mornings VO2 workout
i try to incorporate an hour of stretching into my rest days. i get antsy on days that i don’t exercise, and i tend to feel better after a long stretching routine than a 30m Lazy Mountain, it’s always pleasantly surprising, i still get the mental benefit while letting my body heal
(how many of us really stretch as much as we should normally???)
I was miserable all day. Felt lazy, mopey, unaccomplished. Feelings of guilt eating my square of dark chocolate and copious amounts of veggies for dinner. I don’t deserve all this food… I sat on my butt all day… Should I pick up the dumbbells I bought on Black Friday? No!!! That’s not resting… What the hell should I do, sit down and actually pay attention to my children and … play games with them!?
Coworkers asked if I was stressed, “You look stressed, everything OK?” … “Yes, Yes … just some things…it will be OK”
Was very happy to complete my workout this morning. RESTIN AIN’T EASY
I’d rather have a failed workout on a rest day (when I shouldn’t be riding) than actually have a legitimate rest day. That damn Garmin scale is a cruel master. #disorderedeating#screwedupselfimage
I find it easy to rest and easy to ride time permitting. The hard part is knowing when to take a day free from work and not ride. All my days off the bike are crisscrossing the county. Every day I’m home I’m treating as mini blocks of training. So easy to over ride and over rest (or not ride). Very frustrating.
I’ve been working on fostering the control what you can, accept and adapt to what you can’t mindset.
This has been truly tested since starting my new job. A job I chose to move to. I could have stayed in my pervious role and everything was hunky-dory.
My training plan is adapting daily. For the first time in well over a year, I’m having to miss sessions. So far, I’ve been able to adjust things and get my targeted sessions done. This won’t last forever. My physical training is going to suffer.
What I’m telling myself is that it’s not worth the mental stress. I can’t alter the situation. What good is stressing going to do me. So, I’m telling myself that it’s a recovery day. I’m going to benefit in other ways. Less fatigue and those hard days might just be more productive.
My wife is in covid quarantine since last Thursday. I have a 4 year old, so my time has been pretty occupied for the past week. This was the first time I took 3 straight days off the bike this year and it made me anxious. Was able to get an hour in today, which was good. Looking forward to Saturday when she comes out of her exile and I’m going out for a long while.
I’m on Annual Leave so I laid in till circa 10:30am. My resting ended at that point for a 2 and half hour Z1/2 ride. The resting has resumed though and I am just listening to the football (soccer) on the internet radio.