Taking a "rest"

After Monday's mentally tough workout I decided to give my legs some much needed "rest." Of course, in my world right now rest means a least a mile of running. The week looked like this:
Tues: 3 miles on the treadmill
Wed.: 1.16 miles on the treadmill

 Thursday: 5 miles on the treadmill at the gym before work
Friday: 1 mile on the track at the gym, and SPIN CLASS!
I bet you are seeing a pattern, lots of treadmill miles. The temps have been quit cold this week or snowy, so I kept it inside. I also have let my self have 2 light days followed by the 5 mile run. I could tell that those 2 rest days this week were needed. My legs finally felt "springy" on Friday before Spin Class.

This got me thinking about the importance of a rest day. Runner's World has a great article on the importance of rest days here. Basically, what a rest day does is it allows your muscles to adapt to the work that you have done previously and improve. I could definitely feel a difference after my rest days. It also allows you to replenish glycogen stores, it prevents injuries, and also prevents mental burn out. Wow, talk about a gut check. It's no wonder why I felt burnt out on Monday and why it was mentally tough for me. The previous week had been a lot of workouts where I pushed myself and now after those rest days I feel refreshed. Then I started to worry that my running streak was leaving me over trained but the article did mention this:

"So is a little running on a rest day okay for mere mortals? It can be. As long as you keep the volume and intensity very light, you can still get the recovery benefits. (The same goes for cross-training on a rest day: Keep it relaxed.)"

Based on this it reassured me that my rest days, even though I have been running just a mile are still being effective rest and recovery days. I am definitely glad I took a couple days "off."

On another note, I do want to wish my hubby a Happy Birthday! We celebrated on Wednesday with a lunch date and some homemade cheese cake. Since no blog is complete with out some food pics, here you are:

Snickerdoodle cheesecake, yum! Click here for the recipe

Monday's Workout..."rest" day

I hope Monday treated you well. I was up at 4:30 AM to get to the gym before work. I was short on time and in need of a "rest" day. For me, since I am still in my running streak means I do at least one mile of running. So today I did one mile of running on the treadmill, followed by 10 minutes on the elliptical. I basically just went on the elliptical so I could catch up with my emails on my phone, but wanted to do something while doing that so I felt productive. HA!



I am thinking a Yoga class or Tabata is in my future this week. I will say Tabata kicks my bum. I was sore for days after and had difficulty lifting my arms without being sore. If you haven't tried Tabata check it out! In Tabata, you only do 5 exercises during the whole class. However, you do 8 reps of each exercise as hard as you can for 20 seconds with a 10 second rest in between. It is intense, but I love that I can get a tough workout in in 30 minutes.




What's your favorite cross training or workout class?

Are you a morning exerciser or evening?