A week after I ran the Grand Canyon, it dawned on me. R2R2R was my last big adventure/race of the year. It was mid-October and I had nothing left to train for in 2023.
Zip.
I could finally put my head down and get a proper rest. I love having a full calendar but I hate to admit it, I was truly mentally and physically tired.
Gosh .. it was a busy year for races and adventures. Races aside, my gain goal this year was to be a more social runner. (Relatively to Calgary. Not being good enough etc.) Mission accomplished as I have several amazing running adventures from 2022.
Of course all the weekends spent in the mountains and the week day kilometres added up. Another confession: I wasn’t very good at taking the mandatory rest days. Thanks to my consistent strength training and mobility, I felt good so I just kept on going.
But as you know the bill always comes due.
Rest. Recover. Reset.
That’s been my go-to for the last few weeks. (Also I was forced to stay home until I swapped out my all season tires with my winter tires. It snowed!)
So you may ask why did you run three repeats of Sulphur mountain on Saturday? For those of you out of the now, Sulphur Mountain is in Banff, right next door to Banff Springs. It’s roughly 5 kilometres/711 metres up. Three repeats roughly equalled: 32 kilometres with 2,100m gain.
Yup. I am embracing rest.
Seriously I love this time of the year when I don’t have any races on deck. I can breathe. I am not handcuffed to a training schedule. Let’s be spontaneous. It’s only running after all.
It’s funny. In recent weekends where I have wondered .. what do I do now? I don’t have to get up way too early to beat the traffic on Hwy 1 and the crowds at West Bragg. It took me a little time for my brain to reset. But now I am loving the sleep ins on Saturday mornings and the extra hours that I suddenly discovered in the day.
Reading. Cooking. Watching all the Netflix.
I love the off season.
It won’t last long as I am restless by nature. I can’t wait until the next training cycle.
Do you prioritize rest in your training? How many rest days or blocks of rest do you typically take in a season? I would love to hear from you in the comments below.