Effectiveness of Complete Rest Days
It's pretty well known that I hate Rest Days for a number of reasons. Last year I could count all of the rest days I took during the entire year on one hand and I had a pretty good year. However, I know that standing down and recovering are my weakness and therefore I've been trying to be better about it this year... but have run into some issues.
This year, I've been trying to be much better about taking easy days or complete days off and have already taken off significantly more days from running than last year. I'm struggle though as it seems the rest days are just setting me back even more.
Over the last few months I have noticed that when I take a complete rest day, my body pretty much shuts down and can't get going again. I typcially took at least a full day of zero exercise and when I try to do a workout the next day I have a horrible workout. In fact it then takes me 2-3 days to get back into a groove and start hitting my targets again. Needless to say it is pretty frustrating and I find I do MUCH better if instead of taking a day off I go for an easy swim/run/ride.
This weekend, I was completely shelled on Saturday, so Sunday I only swam and Monday I did nothing (that's over 2 full days of not riding or running. This morning I got up, legs felt good and I went out to do the FTT in my plan. The result was horrible, my HR was higher than normal and my legs add nothiing, but for 3 weeks now I have been hitting all of my FTP intervals well above my target and my WKO charts so my FTP is about 10 watts higher. After I had a horrible brick run as well. I also noticed that after a day off my body has issues with hydration. I've been around 136-137lbs most days for the last month, but I gained 7 lbs from Sat to Monday and then lost 6 from Monday to Tuesday. All weigh-ins have been right after waking and my food intake has been the same and just under my target calories for the day.
FWIW - my CTL is a good bit lower than last year (like 20 points) and my TSB is not as low either thanks to less running and a few rest days.
So...I very seriously considering going back to what worked last year and giving up on this whole rest day thing as it really messes with my mind and body - plus I am in a shitty mood during the rest day and then an even worse mood for the next few days while I get back into a routine. Instead, I will go back to what worked well last year (and the years before) and run pretty much everyday but take an easy day when my body feels it needs it.
Could my body just not respond well to rest days?
Am I really better off doing easy days instead of rest days (it sure seems this way)?
Am I just being hard headed like usual?
Sorry for the rant and thanks for any thoughts you have.
Comments
Is this 100% repeatable for you or was today worse than ususal? What about the few rest days you took last year? Did you experience the same thing?
Regardless... I do know there are tremendous benefits to active recovery... so if that works for you, cool... but please please please be careful that you're going easy enough to not be causing/exacerbating harm.
Today was worse than usual, but it is definitely repeatable, including the few times I took rest days last year. I almost never have a good workout for at least 2-3 days after a rest day. However if I am completely shelled and still go for an easy run or spin the next day, I usually snap right back and am back on track the next day.
Thanks Becky, i've do have a negative attitude toward rest days and tapering anyway because I don't have any good experiences with either, but I will keep working on it.
I am actually pretty good at managing fatigue. I'm very good at catching myself before going head first into the brick wall... I just bump into it everyone once in a while (knock on wood).
That is exactly my experience Keith. For the past few years I have done the "light" or recovery workouts just based on what my body wants to do. Somedays it is at EP, otherdays much slower or faster. But it is my chance to let me body do what it wants and not have a target to hit or workout to do. When I do that I don't have issues getting right back to the planned workouts the next day, but if I take a full day off, it takes multiple days to get back to hitting my targets.
At least I'm not the only one that experiences this.
Hm. I don't think I've taken a complete rest day. If I do, I end up doing exactly what RnP warm against -- doing something hard to catch up on real life.
Maybe Matt rest days can involve no expectation runs without the Garmin?
I also have been noticing when my body feels really, really tired, it is usually because I have been skipping core/yoga/stretching, or massage and need to back off a workout and spent some time taking care of how crunchy my body is feeling.
Theory: Rest days may not actually be fixing what needs to be rested.
(All that said, there are tons of pros and elite AGs that have that same gift of recovery, and still swear by the complete rest day.)
Ignacy (Jan) Paderewski: "If I miss one day of practice, I notice it. If I miss two days, the critics notice it. If I miss three days, the audience notices it."
Last season before my injury, I did not take one complete rest day. I would either do yoga, core work, or (gasp!) alot of yardwork/housework on my day off. I felt fine.
Due to lack of motivation, I've take alot of days completely off this season. Like you, I've found that just one day off (especially the Monday after a weekend with alot of hard riding) made me feel terrible the next day. However, 2-3 days completely off in a row...I came back like I had rocket fuel in my veins.
The physiology of adaptation to an exercise stress load is complex, especially for a human (vs. a race horse), because so many physical and mental factors play into it. I have patients who are horse trainers and they pretty much know how hard to push their horses. For us, even if we didn't have to go to work/have a family and life and just lived in barn and eat oats and train, it would still be more complicated because we have performance expectations.
I don't have a good answer for you. But as Beth said, perhaps an "active recovery" day would suit you better than just one day off...
This morning especially but really the entire summer was been stupid humid. I can't really compare any workout to historical data, everything has been temp dependent. Its been very odd summer in Chicago.
I come back from rest days feeling sharp. Two days off, not so much.
I'm with Hayes. I feel great after a rest day but not more than one.
Honestly, I would say that you should do what works for you, Matt. Like you said, last year was a great year and you're good at monitoring your training stress.
Matt,
Here's my comments:
1) I did not search out the thread but I recall you mentioning how well you did (IMWI last year??) with all the rest coming off the foot injury you had. Go find that post and read it.
2) How often do you take the rest day? Just when you feel you need it are you on a 10 day cycle, two weeks? I'm not sure which way to go but perhaps you need to lengthing the cycle (21 days)and go for 2-3 easy days. Could be you need to shorten the cycle and take a day off/rest day?
I'm thinking in the long term the day's off will help you rest and stay healthy. Even the odd off day may not be bad. Just realize that you have to try to schedule the rest days in before you are beyond that edge and really needing it before a FTT.
3) I'm only on in my first year with EN and also find that time off shifts the body out of its normal patterns.
4) This is happening as you are building in to the IM distance with a good bit of intesity still. As a newcomer this is where I felt the worst. Transition from the OS to general prep/IM plan. I did get sick during the transition so this definitely effected my start up.
5) Finally you mention going back to running every day. You are a running stim junkie
and need that feeling you get from running. Be careful you don't run yourself in to another injury, see #1. How does the body react with a rest day swim or easy (short) bike? There's a balance here somewhere, unfortunately I don't have the answer and you know you body best.
One other thought consider how you feel on the taper for IM. This is just a mini cycle of that, but you using it to continue building for the race. The odd thing is the huge weight fluctuation I don't know what to say about that.
Gordon
@Eric - I know, it seems crazy but it is like once I let me body have a day off it just shuts down and takes a while to get going again.
@Gordon - thank you, you make a lot of great points I need to re-read a few times. The foot injury was actually this OS and well after IMWI (it was from swimming). I did take time off from everything per doctors orders and I was able to get my cycling back pretty quick, but it took a month or more of running before I was able to get back to my previous fitness level. You are absolutely correct. I love to run and really enjoy it, which is why I got into the game. I was running so much that I needed the swimming and biking to give my legs a break from all the running.
Again, sorry I'm a mental case today, but thats what rest days (and tapers) do to me. Tomorrow will be a new day and I will move forward. I really appreciate all of the input though as you have given me more to consider.
Like last year, I will follow the plan for the taper leading up to the race because otherwise I wont taper at all. However, until then I think I'm going to revent back to my no full days off, but instead do easy jogs or spins to keep my sanity.
Matt, you may have reached that point like TDF riders, if they do not ride on their rest day their bodies move into recovery phase. They'll go out and ride 2+ hrs on the 'off' day of grand tours. Given, you've mentioned you can count your rest days with one hand, I'm wondering if you're body just wants to rebuild when nothing aerobically happens that day.....
I played baseball in college. Was a pitcher. We had to run a bunch and every week we were tested. Had to run 3 miles in 21 minutes I think or we had to do it the next day. So our coach had scheduled these runs for Monday or the day after a day off. The times on these runs were always terrible. We would barely make the cut or sometimes missed the cut. Our coach was always upset with us. I told him that coming off a day or two of not running I just didn't feel as good but thought if I ran it say Thursday I thought I would do better. (We would do runs everyday during the week.) So after the tests were moved everyone's times got much better. Some people dropping minutes after a few weeks. Sure, some of it may have been due to increased fitness, but I will always feel it was because I was running not after an off day.
That being said, I do love a good off day!
I would love RnP input on this. All I know is that it's REAL easy to talk yourself into not "needing" rest. Matt might be talented, but no one is Superman. Your mileage and parameters may vary, but physiology is physiology and at some point the body needs rest to absorb or the cascade of breaking down begins. And that's all I have to say about that.
Like Hayes said, Tour riders come to mind, and they are always talking about not knowing how the body will respond in the MIDDLE OF THE TOUR to a rest day. Don't forget, these guys take seasons. They're not riding like that 365. Matt is talking about good results year-round virtually no days off. Good luck with that as the years tick by.
I went back to my log for 2009 and 2010, and looked for days with NO workout entered between Mid Feb and Thanksgiving - my season. Not counting enforced rest days immediately after an IM or HIM, or the occasional travel day (1-2 per year), it goes like this: 2009: March - 2, April, May, June -1 each, July, August, Sept, Oct, Nov - one every other month. 2010: March - 1, Apr - 0, May - 1, June, July - 0, Aug, 1 so far.
So apparently I'm doing SOMETHING pretty much every day. (The number of days with 3 or 4 entries was a bit shocking to me.) What I do, though, is modulate my effort level based on my own assessment of my body's need for recovery and repair, vs its need to be really tested by key workouts on a regular basis. So, long runs, long bikes, interval training on the bike and the run, as well as two bricks a week are the things I try to make sure I am rested for. I'm willing to have "only" 3-4 runs a week, 2 bikes a week, and two swims a week, if that's all I seem able to handle.
I bet that recovery and rest are highly individual based on consistency of daily schedule e.g., sleep and eating times, maintaining recovery diet, hydration, etc.
I do agree that after somewhere between 24-48 hours, if I haven't done ANYTHING, something shifts in my body, which then takes a awhile to come out of some sort of incipient hibernation mode.
One last thing: I was just thinking this morning on the 5 hour drive home from taking my daughter to college, that I have once again started the six week "guilt trip" which seems to precede every Ironman I do. From Week 8 to week 2 before an IM, I constantly have the feeling that (a) I am not doing enough, (b) I don't have enough training PLANNED, and (c) I must therefore do EVERYTHING as hard and as long as I can, hang the consequence for the next day's workout. That's a major reason I pay RnP: so I don't make up my own workouts and overcook myself. If I feel the need for a little extra, I'll either go to the weight room, or commute on my bike to work.
Matt, to one of your specific concerns: Yeah, I also feel pretty rotten starting at about 24 hours of not doing anything at all - grumpy, achy, weird weight changes, as if my body is struggling to adjust to a new reality. So, in a sense, we are addicted to exercise. I no longer try to force myself to totally stand down for more than 24 hours, mainly because I feel better if I don't. But I am willing to do an easy swim, or bike if I don't feel up to harder work. I don't do "junk mile" recovery runs, though - I just don't like running that much.
Another thought - at this stage of our training, those bike FTP intervals are becoming less important, and the bricks, second half of the long run, weekend rides, and upcoming RRs are the key training events. See how you feel and perform during those.
@Al - Thank you for sharing you experience as it is very similair to mine... except I love to run ;-). I've had very good luck as well with letting my body pace the easy workouts according to how it feels. In fact many times I will set my garmin not to show pace on one of my easy or recover runs and just run how I feel for the day. Like you I know what the key workouts are and focus on those. I was so disappointed as I thought standing down and taking actual rest days would allow me to really hit the key workouts and the opposite has been true... I do better when I do something everyday. BTW, I also have trying to cram more in issue and that is why I pay close attention to the plan especially as I get close to an A-race.
Matt--it sounds like you have your answer. You monitor your intensity, you feel complete rest days are counterproductive for you, and you seem to have the results behind you. Case closed, don't you think? Careful with the arch stuff cropping up is all.
To get to your question matt, I think we are talking more about homeostasis than recovery. At the end of the day after 28 days of training, 1 day off is nothing. A drop. A blip. It will barely move your CTL....yet you feel it massively. In your case keeping that active state is very important; your challenge then is to find ways to recover without taking off: think ice baths, massages, compression gear, yoga/stretching.
Again, thanks for leading from the front!!!
P