We all have a threshold of stuff that we can handle. Most of the time I will manage okay-ish with a 5:30 am track session, but throw in an evening of poor sleep, not feeling well and some pain in my shins, and suddenly my 5:30 am track session becomes unmanageable and I quit it prematurely.

Similarly, none of us can keep going all the time. If we keep on pushing through day in and day out, our threshold of stuff we can handle will lower. Eventually, the slightest tiniest niggle is going to send us tumbling into a pit of despair. Which is why we should rest and plan for it.

I didn’t always believe rest to be important. On the very first day I joined RunZone for a run, almost two years ago, a friend chatted with me afterwards. One of his questions was: “Which days are your rest days?”

At that stage, I didn’t have any rest days! None. Nada. Niks… He gave me a stern talking-to and insisted that I start taking both (gasp!) Mondays and Fridays off.

I didn’t want to do it!

I believed that the only way I will ever be able to progress is by working hard and consistently every day. I am very hard on myself. I expect a lot from myself and am extremely critical of myself. Nobody, not even my running coach, is as fault-finding of me as I am.

I am convinced I must’ve given him a stare that said: “You have no idea how hard I work. I have so much to fix. I have so much to work on. I cannot afford to rest. Resting is going to cause me to become a poor runner.”

It wasn’t till I went home and researched rest during training myself that I decided to try his suggestion for six weeks before shooting it down.

Fast forward to today. Over the past two years, I’ve come to realise that resting is not equal to wasting time. It is not a sign that I am lazy or not working hard enough, nor that training is not important to me.

Rest days – complete rest days – are golden! My body needs at least one day, preferably two days, of no training stress – not even light training. That break is important for my mental health, my body’s healing processes, metabolism and immune system. Resting is what keeps my threshold intact and my body able to cope with the training load.

Is resting important to you? Do you plan rest days into your schedule? Why or why not?