In our world today we’re always being encouraged, or pushed,o do more, buy more, and just about every “more” you can think of. When it comes to endurance sports, we runners, cyclists, and swimmers often fall into the same trap, wanting to run longer, ride a few more intervals, or swim a few more hundreds in order to get stronger. While we definitely need to be working hard to achieve our goals, it’s actually when we take time to rest that we get stronger. When we rest is when our bodies repair themselves and in turn get stronger. No rest equals no gain.
After doing a long run, for example, we’re tired, and our muscles are depleted and sore. Doing this day after day won’t lead to anything other than sorer legs and burnout. Instead, taking a rest day every so often, and carefully planning out our hard an easy workouts, we can get stronger without beating ourselves up.