Week 9 – Marathon Musings: The Power of Rest
2022 was a pivotal year from me: a decade of running was celebrated with 6 half marathons in 2 months. This is half #1 in Disney with one of my favorite characters, Stitch. I definitely felt a bit crazy and out of this world when I finished my challenge. Rest is what made this amount of racing possible.
Being a runner and finding success and longevity as a runner means that needing to do more than run; we need to focus on the mental body, just as much as we do the physical body. You may think of running as a purely physical activity, but there is so much that goes into believing you can run and trusting that you can do more than what limiting thoughts may suggest. The mind and body are so intertwined that both affect every aspect of the experience of running. When the body wants to stop, the mind can help you push through. When the mind wants to stop, the body may start to feel sluggish. Both thoughts and perspectives and bodily sensations can influence the experience of running.
Why am I starting off this post by talking about all this mind-body stuff? Because understanding how they influence one another is a key part of understanding the body’s need for rest and the mind’s ability to accept rest as part of the process. How do I know this is important to understand? Because I used to be that person that didn’t value rest and didn’t understand why I kept burning out as a runner.
I’ve been through many periods of feeling exhausted, questioning whether I even liked running, and viewing each run as a chore that needed to get done. I would get frustrated with myself because I knew that I loved running and how running made me feel, but I didn’t quite get how trying to run all the miles and do all the workouts was depleting me. I didn’t understand that focusing solely on the grind wasn’t helping me become a “better” athlete. This is the whole “If I want to run faster, I have to run fast all the time” mentality. I wasn’t meant to “run fast” all the time; my mind hated it, and my body started to resent me for it. Being physically tired and viewing each run as a chore were my signals that something was up. If running was a choice I was making, why was I choosing to do something that drained me and was something I dreaded doing?
Thankfully, an ah-ha moment arrived and I realized I was burnt out from pushing my body too hard and fighting with my mind to get things done. I was leaking energy and didn’t even realize that I had been leaking energy! There’s physical energy in running and mental energy in convincing yourself to run, negotiating with yourself to keep running, and trying to stay positive pre-, during, and post-run. I was fighting with my body and my mind, and I was exhausted.
I always like to say that the body whispers, until it screams. If you listen closely, the body is always communicating with you. When you ignore or stop listening, the body will scream at you in the form of exhaustion and/or injury. It’s that twinge in the leg that is asking you to take a rest day that can turn into IT Band Syndrome if ignored. And there’s the key word I’ve been meaning to get to: rest.
Rest as a runner means taking a break from running and it also means being ok with not running. Rest means taking a step back to let your body adjust and adapt to training and it also means understanding that rest doesn’t have to be earned. You can’t be going at all times, you need to pause and rest to recharge the body and reset the mind. When I am rested, I feel ready to work hard. When I am not rested, everything just feels hard. Rest is there to help us reflect on our progress and to remind us that we can keep going. Rest isn’t a punishment as it’s part of the process of growing and developing as an athlete. Furthermore, rest is an acknowledgment of all that your body has done for you and a preparation for all that your body will do for you. Rest is just as important as the work because rest is there to protect you from burnout and injury. In other words, rest is how you say thank you to your body and mind for all it’s forward movement and all it’s self-belief.
Now that I prioritize rest, I can take a more global look at my running. No one run is more important than another, but each run is a piece of the puzzle that helps me establish a strong foundation for myself as a runner. Rest is what allows me to build week after week. Rest is what keeps me excited about training because my mind is clear and my body is fresh. The deeper I get into marathon training, the more I look forward to rest days. You can fight me on this, but there’s nothing better than a rest day after a long run!
Rest is there to help us be better and feel better. Rest is one of the most important tools in our runner toolbox and I hope you all see the benefits of rest on both your body and your mind.
Marathon History:
2014 Chicago Marathon
2015 Miami Marathon
2015 Berlin Marathon
2015 Chicago Marathon
2016 Chicago Marathon
2016 NYC Marathon
2017 Chicago Marathon
2018 Chicago Marathon
2021 Chicago Marathon
2023 London Marathon
2023 Marine Corps Marathon
Marathon Musings series:
8 weeks until Chicago and 9 weeks of musings written. Now to rest before my long run!
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