What Constitutes a Rest Day?

Triathlon Forum
1

Here’s the short version… On a rest day, do you tend to stay away from any strenuous activity? Or does a short, easy swim (mostly drills for 25yd) still count as a rest day?

Here’s the longer version… Training for my first tri (Kona 1/2IM), I have a lot of work to do. I am struggling to swim, so I now do M-W-F for an hour. The bike is my strength, and I ride on T-W-Th-S-S so I can race cycling separately as well. You can see that I’m already out of days of the week! And I haven’t even started running yet. So, I’m wondering whether the swim workouts on M & F are “easy” enough to be considered rest/off days for now since I mostly do easy drills and maybe 10 lengths of the pool actually “swimming.” As I swim better and more, of course those sessions will become harder.

Separate question. How many truly “off” days are normal for long course training? I have Friel’s book, but I’m more interested in success/failure stories from real people. In my time on the bike, I’ve never really been able to tell whether I needed more/less rest. 5 days, 6 days, 4 days, all resulted in about the same.

2

Hey Aztec,

In my opinion this is the best question anyone has asked on this forum in past few weeks. Excellent.

Here’s my take for whatever it may be worth: Few people seem to understand how to take rest days. Many people seem to understand how to take “hard” training days. I think the same approach needs to be applied to both.

In my opinion a rest day is an opportunity for the body to recover and assimilate, or more correctly, adapt to the greater work load exerted by endurance training. So, with that in mind, it seems logical to take proactive measures to facilitate recovery. These include: Adequate, restful sleep in an appropriate environment. The multi-time World Formula 1 Champion Ayrton Senna was so obsessive about his recovery he demanded his head be facing south when he slept and his sheets, blankets, pillows, etc were specifically configured. While these seems odd, I have to agree. My pillows, sheets and even my bed are all new and sleeping on clean sheets prevents the spread of the common cold.

Additionally, food and hydration are key on rest days. Avoiding simple sugars and excessive stimulants is appropriate on rest days. During the week when I am training I am perpetually wired on coffee and Red Bull. When I take a rest day my diet is almost always “cleaner” with more fiber, less refined foods and sugars and more liquids.

Massage is another must-do in my opinion to facilitate adequate recovery AND adaptation. It is important your massage therapist knows what you are doing to. I don’t what my massage therapist talkiing to me. I just want them to work on me. The hour or two on the massage table is a chance for your mind to rest also. Conversation is a distraction from rest.

Also, resting your mind on a rest day is critically important. Avoid stressful situations, people you don’t like or who are abrasive and require a lot of emotional energy to deal with. This is draining. I think it is a good day to watch a light, entertaining movie, read a book, or use music to allow your brain to “change channels” from endurance sports to something else for a while.

I think it is important to really rest on a rest day also- for me, that mans no activity. I lay on the couch with my cats and watch the History Channel. I sleep in. I don’t talk on the phone. In general, I am disconnected from stuff that bugs me or may create stress.

Done correctly, a rest day really recharges your batteries so when you go back to training you are really ready to attack it.

3

training for placid this past year, i took every monday off. without exception. it was a mental break as much as a physical one. i enjoyed getting to sleep in and not having the monkey called training on my back for a day. now it’s my off season and i sometimes take 2 days completely off. some people just train until they feel like they need a day off. there’s no right way. your body will tell you when it NEEDS a day off. just remember to listen.

have you tried a swim coach? swimming more with bad form is almost worse than not swimming at all.

4

stongly correlates to your level. If you’re really good at what you do, I’m sure an easy swim or easy spin is a “rest” for your body. (I think)

I will say this though; I never appreciated a rest day until a couple of weeks ago when I took a day off work and went to a spa place out of town. I got up late, met some friends, went to the place, relaxed for the whole afternoon and got a massage. The next day I got onto the spin bike and I gotta say, it was the most frustrating workouts EVER. I couldn’t spin for the life of me - even getting 100rpm+ was a struggle. It was then that I understood that my body had completely shutdown and that it NEEDED it. Suffice it to say now I’m religiously integrating rest days into my training.

5

I 2nd what Tom et. al have to say about rest - very important! My personal experience is that I need Monday off as I have to do my long ride/run on the weekend and when work kicks in during the week, it makes recovery more difficult. I tried spreading out the long run, but it takes too much out of me during the week, but I would encourage you to at least experiment with it. Some weeks you may find you need 2 days or more to recover as other life events may take their toll on recovery. 3 days on and one off works well too, but is harder to manage with a regular work schedule. It may take a few months or even a year or so to really dial it in, but you’ll come up with a formula that works.

6

That’s a good plan for many - taking the Monday off - because, typically for many the weekend is the time when they do their longest and hardest training. I would so the same thing - take all or most Mondays completely off.

It’s good to have a struture like that, but you also have to know when to insert rest/easy days when the body starts to get a little over-tired, even when the training plan says a hard 100 miler, you need to know when to call that ride off.

7

My rest days consist normally of sitting around watching the boob tube and maybe a casual 20 mile ride at 19mph or a short swim (1/3 mile max at slow pace). I find that the day after a big workout going on a semi-casual ride helps recovery a lot. Besides, then I am going slow enough to take in the scenery, some of it quite attractive, if-ya-know-what-I-mean. Most of the time my casual day is Sunday because I tend to structure my hard days for all day on Saturday (20+ run or 100+ ride). Because I work a stressful 8-5:30 job I tend to take some weeknights totally off, and this year I still have managed to drop a minute off my run pace and add 2mph to my bike pace. Rest and good sleep is key to a good performance.

8

Just my little know-nothing thoughts: Everybody seems to work around a seven day schedule. Since everyone is different, maybe you can handle a ten day schedule?

I didn’t see anyone mention “active recovery”. I would be interested in the thoughts of experienced triathletes on this. The TDF riders ride on their days off, yes?

If you are out of days before getting to the run, maybe you can do two W/O’s a day? Or add bricks?

9

Hey, Aztec…which Kona 1/2IM are you doing next year? Keauhou-Kona or the Honu Triathlon the next week? Honu’s the IMH qualifier this time around.

BK

10

I do a 6 day on/1 day off, except for a few weeks, non-consecutive, when I add a swim session on my “off” day.

Example: Monday OFF, Tu-Su workouts.

Hell, I’m on post-GFT rest DAYS right now. Nothing but scarfing pizza, Pepsi and junk food since Saturday night. It must work, because I had not a bit of muscle soreness this morning, and very, very little the day after the race :slight_smile: I may even do the Haleiwa Sprint triathlon this Sunday back on Oahu (I get back Saturday afternoon :slight_smile:

My old nickname was “Ironhead”. Can you figure out why? ;-))

11

Keahou. I panicked, thinking it would sell out instantly, as it had in previous years. Two days later I learned about the Honu event. I was at the Keahou event supporting others this year, but stayed up at the Hapuna, so I think the Honu event is probably sexier and definitely more scenic. Oh well. I don’t need to worry about qualifying for IM anyway… the only way I get into that race is via lotto.

12

I try to base my schedule on the lunar cycle, as opposed to the seven, or as BadMonk mentioned, ten day cycle. Maybe it’s because my time of birth, July 12 @ 12:25am, has made me more receptive to the energy of the moon. Maybe it’s because i’m a new-age hippie that digs the fact that Luna, Gaia, and Ra all influence me heavily so I try to align myself with them. Lately I’ve been trying to take a complete day off on the new moon, day off meaning the type of day Tom D describes above. The other 27 or so days I workout. Maybe I run, maybe I take a looooong hike, maybe I ride; usually I ride. However, it should be noted I don’t do any killer workouts that leave me flat for several days after, except at the very end of the cycle. Instead, I give myself just enough to make progress and be able to make more progress once again the following day.

Theoretically there is a scale of workouts with a range from that which I could handle every day on to infinity up to that which I could only handle for one day and then be broke the next. What I do is ramp up over the lunar cycle, beginning with workouts I think I could do every day for several months in a row without a day off. As I’m obsessed with Phi, I also incorporate that number (1.618…) into the mix. The first 17 workouts I generally consider feminine ones, the type I could handle for over a months worth of time. I get 17 by multiplying 27 days by .618 and then round up. This leaves me with 10 days left of the cycle, what I consider the masculine workouts. These workouts continue to ramp up and are of the intensity I could not handle for very long without self-destruction. The last couple days are very hard, so long as I timed everything right and don’t need to end the cycle early. This general plan has been working for me pretty well the past several months, as taking a day off every week gets me out of sync in a really bad way.

13

…and I know you are not kidding.

14

Rest is important, but you can ride or swim on a rest day. Just keep your HR in recovery zone (zone 1, low zone 2). Most of us actually recover better doing something. Running for recovery is pretty much off.

More important is to listen to your body. If you feel burned out, or if your legs are sore and not getting better, or you’re having trouble sleeping, you’re overtraining. Recovery is all about keeping fresh, and how much you need will depend on how taxing your workload is (including job, family and other stressors).

It’s pretty hard to give advice without knowing more particulars, like how much of that bike mileage is high intensity and how long have you been training, etc.

15

I can’t speak for every pro, but this is what Lisa Bentley seems to think and do.
At a tri club meeting here in Chattanooga, Lisa was quite outspoken about the importance of rest days and described them as follows. “We all have busy lives and fill our days with work and training, so we are all tempted to run our errands such as shopping, banking, yard work and visiting friends on our rest days. That is not a rest day though. On a rest day you need to relax and put your feet up, that truly makes it a rest day.”
Cheers
Herbert
Litespeed/QR

Lisa, forgive me if I have not quoted you perfectly. :slight_smile:

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Dude, I dig your style.

17

“On a rest day, do you tend to stay away from any strenuous activity?”

You stay in the house, don’t move off the couch, watch TV and drink beer. Oooops, sorry, I’m describing a training day.

18

Dude, I dig your style.
Well then, according to http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/img/worldpop.gif, that is 2 down and 6,499,999,998 to go!

19

Because the training days are so intense, rest days for me are easy riding, or no riding and other sports. I take one or two days off per week.

20

I think Tom’s answer is right on. I have learned this from trial and error…in other words, the hard way, the way I learn everything.

When I allow myself to really rest, meaning lots of sleep, good food and very little activity, for a day or two; I am amazed at how good I feel when I get back to my workouts, race, whatever. I have never noticed a loss of fitness from one, two or three consecutive rest days. Conversely,* *I can go without rest days for a couple of weeks…but my performance is definitely impaired.

The biggest challenge in resting is wrestling with our mental demons and exercise obsessions.

It’s also a challenge to figure out how often to take rest days…it changes with my fitness level, the time of year, my age, what’s going on in the rest of my life, etc. I have learned not to wait until I feel totally burnt out, but to take a rest just when I feel “tired”.

Learning to relax can have other benefits also, it can certainly put you in a better mental state. And you might even convince others in your life that you’re not totally neurotic (just speaking for myself here)…