Rest Days - A 4 Letter Word!

One of the hardest things for me to wrap my head around when I first upped my mileage shorts that didn't fall off my nonexistent butt, waking up super early before it got too hot to run double digits, stretching, hydrating, realizing I could no longer subside on sugar alone was the concept of the REST DAY…. dun dun dun (that is supposed to sound like foreboding old music in case you didn't catch on to my wittiness via the written word, I am making the sound effects out loud as I type it and trust me they are awesome in person, but just don't translate to paper/blog well).

I know, rest day, really Abby, that is what you had a problem with?  Are you crazy?  You just rest.  How hard it that?  Grab a book, rent a movie, find your couch and enjoy it.  Stop complaining crazy!  But it was hard… Really hard.  You get going on your training and you want to work out every single day.  You feel like you are doing awesome and worry that by skipping a workout you are cheating yourself, cheating your fitness, etc.  I don't know how many weeks there have been where I had to force myself to rest.  I actually have an internal dialogue (okay, maybe it is out loud sometimes, but not quite bat crap crazy level of talking to myself, yet) going on with one side saying, "you feel good, burn some calories, get in some extra miles, you'll be glad you did" and the other saying, "you've worked out 6 days in a row, you need to rest, let your body relax and repair."  This is even tougher for me now that I am trying to lose weight because every day off is a chance to burn calories, turn fat into muscle, get back into shape, etc. missed; whereas, before when I was maintaining it was still horrid, but better. 

However, I must say even though I hate rest days and suck at doing them.  They are a necessary evil for me.  I know that if I keep going without ever taking rest days it will add up and take its toll on me.  So the solution - Schedule Rest Days just as you would any other exercise/run.  I knew today was scheduled as my rest day so I pushed it with two longer runs (8 miles Sat. & another 8 Sun.) this weekend.  Now here I am relaxing at home after a long day at work and I really want to run, especially after I caved to a few of those cookies (I was in a traffic jam, they were in the passenger seat, the called to me, I answered, don't judge) and want to work them off, but I am restraining.  I am resting.  This is me resting.  See how well I am doing.  Are you impressed yet?  As much as it pains me I'm going to take it easy, because while I know my mind may be yelling at me today (go go go), my legs will thank me in the long run.  So rest up legs, you're back on duty tomorrow and I have already scheduled 2 workouts:)    

That's right Ryan (Do you like how we are on a first name basis?) I'm busy kicking some mentally strong a** today.