The Importance of Rest

Rest is one of the most important components of any training plan. It is, however, something many of us aren’t very good at doing. Fraser Clyne argues the case for giving our bodies and minds a proper break on regular occasions.

The principle of rest and recovery is well-established and is little more than common sense, but many runners choose to ignore it despite its obvious importance. So, when should we rest, what do we mean by it and what should be do?

Well, consider this: at the end of a training session you are tired. At that very moment you are less fit to run than you were at the beginning of the session. If someone asked you to go out and immediately try to repeat the workout you’d just completed, you wouldn’t be able to do it very effectively, or you might not be able to do it all. Your body wouldn’t have had time to recover. That’s obvious.

The benefit you get from any training session comes in the recovery period when the body adapts to the work it has carried out and the stress it has endured. That adaptation allows it to bounce back to a higher stable base level of fitness. It’s when you have reached that recovery point that you should do your next hard training session. After that, you allow another period of recovery and adaptation, bouncing back to yet another slightly higher level of fitness, before moving on to train well again.

Over a period of time this puts you on an upward trajectory of fitness. The mistake many of us make, and I’ve seen this with many runners, is in trying to train hard before having fully recovered from the previous hard training session. If you train hard when you are still over-tired, and haven’t fully recovered or adapted, then there’s a danger of getting into a downward trajectory.

If the recovery period hasn’t allowed you to bounce back to a higher fitness mark, indeed if you are actually below your original mark, because you are still tired or sore, then when you train hard again you will sink to a lower level of tiredness. Some runners compound the problem by thinking this means they need to train even harder because the training they’ve been doing isn’t producing results. This just makes things worse. What they really need to do at that point is take a rest.

Of course, it’s never that straightforward. We all adapt differently and it depends to a great extent on how much running we are used to doing and at what intensity. Experienced runners who have been training sensibly for many years may have adapted to handling intense workouts on a more regular basis and with shorter recoveries than those who are newer to the game. Then there’s the question of how much recovery time we need between our harder training sessions. Too little recovery, as I’ve said, is obviously a problem. Too much recovery, or too long between training sessions, may also be undesirable as you might begin to lose the hard-earned benefits of your tough workouts. This is far from being an exact science. You must judge it for yourself, but essentially you will get a feel for it and if your training performances are improving and you are feeling good, then the chances are that you are getting it right. If performances are deteriorating and if you are picking up regular niggling injuries, you possibly need to reassess your recovery periods.

Rest days don’t necessarily mean that you shouldn’t be running at all. There’s nothing wrong with doing short, comfortable runs in between your harder sessions. But they must be comfortable. Or you can try some relaxing alternative forms of exercise, again so long as it’s comfortable and not taxing.

Consider also the overall quality of your recovery or rest periods. It’s not only about running hard or running easy. It’s about your whole lifestyle. Are you giving yourself sufficient time to recover from all the other things you are trying to fit into your daily routine? You may have a day without running but it may be stressful in other ways, due to work or other commitments. Ask yourself whether that has truly been a recovery day. And consider how well or how often you rest your mind as well as your body? A relaxed mind will help you sleep better, which in turns leads to your body recovering more effectively from physical exercise. So build rest, recovery and total relaxation into not only your running programme, but your daily life programme as well.

Fraser Clyne is a former international marathon runner with a best time of 2 hours 11 minutes 50 seconds. Five times Scottish marathon champion, he competed in the 1986 Commonwealth Games marathon, finishing 10th.He has competed all over the world in 3K, 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon races. He has run 22 sub-2 hour 20 minute marathons and is a sports journalist.