Do You Really Need Rest Days? (Recovery)

[00:00:00] I thought rest days were for weak runners, so I trained seven days a week, hit every workout, felt absolutely unstoppable. Then my hips got so inflamed I could barely walk, and six months later to this day, I’m still dealing with it. Let me save you from making the same mistakes that I did in this episode.

[00:00:16] You’re gonna understand why no days off. Left me injured for months. What recovery actually means. It’s not just your muscles, what to do and not do on recovery days. How recovery helps you train harder and run faster, and you’ll get my free recovery tools and tactics guide with strategies that you can use right now to run better.

[00:00:36] And a free base training plan. I’m Daren DLake, run, coach and run science nerd who’s been testing this stuff on myself for pretty much the last 30 years, if not longer. I’ve gotten injured overtrained for sub three hour marathons, and definitely overtrained, if not overreached heavily for my 10 hour Ironman.

[00:00:54] And through that all I learned the expensive way that discipline without recovery, it’s not discipline, it’s your ego. Learn from me and get 1% better. Lemme tell you about the time when I learned all of that the hard way. Six months ago I was training seven days a week. Temple runs VO two max long runs, intervals, medium long runs, doubles, et cetera.

[00:01:12] My paces were getting faster. I felt amazing, but I was sleeping. Like trash. I was waking up tired even though I was sleeping a whole lot, I was really irritable and my hips, they were getting tighter and tighter each week and I kept telling myself, this is fine. Everything is fine. It’s just part of training.

[00:01:29] Then my hamstrings started spazzing on easy runs. And I blew up at the end of my marathon and it cost me sub three hours. I’d say the last five kilometers, three miles is when I lost probably the two minutes. And guess what? I’m still dealing with the tight hips. I have a very tight SOAs, inflamed SOAs.

[00:01:45] Six months later, and this is when it all hit me, I wasn’t over training, I was under recovering and all that discipline. Again, it’s just ego. I kept piling on stress after stress work life training, and my body said, bro, we’re done. I thought showing up every day made me a 1% better runner, when really I should have just not run because training equals rest.

[00:02:06] Plus work, not work, plus work. Here’s what actually happens when you don’t recover, right? We got evidence and research to back this all up a 2017 review in BMC sports Science. Looked at 38 studies and found something huge. Over training isn’t caused by training too much. It’s caused by an imbalance between training, stress and proper recovery.

[00:02:24] Again, training equals work plus rest, not work. Plus work. Your body can handle the stress. We’re built for it. But when you stack training on top of work, stress and life stress. Bad sleep, poor nutrition, your hormonal system, it just breaks down. The study showed over-training. Athletes had dulled hormonal responses, and their body stopped responding to the stress that the way they should.

[00:02:44] So when you run hard or long, you stress your body out and actually the gains happen when you. Rest and recover and sleep. Here’s a bit of a tricky part of overtraining. Baseline hormone levels look totally normal. That’s why you don’t see it coming. You feel fine until you don’t, and that’s exactly what happened to me.

[00:03:02] So sauna, massage, foam rolling, all solid and all of those tools work. But here’s a recovery tool most runners don’t know about that actually addresses the root problem. Inflammation at a cellular level. This episode is brought to you by ProGo Flux Go a portable red light therapy device that’s been a game changer for managing inflammation between trending blocks.

[00:03:22] Remember earlier when I talked about my hips getting so inflamed I could barely walk and my Achilles feeling just always, always angry. The problem wasn’t just muscle damage, it was chronic inflammation. I kept ignoring Flux Go uses deep infrared light therapy at 850 nanometers. That wavelength.

[00:03:40] Penetrates deep into muscle tissues and helps reduce inflammation and speed up recovery at the cellular level, it’s the same technology hospitals use, but just in a device you can strap on to whatever is beat up on your body. Here’s how I actually use it right after hard workouts. So for my Achilles issues, I’ll strap it to the areas around the tendon, don’t wanna be right on the tendon with it, so right at my calf or the lower calf, and then right at the kind of side, near my ankle, uh, part of my foot and the customizable straps, it allows me to hit different muscle groups depending on.

[00:04:10] On what took the beating that day. It’s portable, rechargeable, and I could use it anywhere. If you wanna try it, use code number one, better run ten@progo.com for 10% off. The link is in the description if you’re listening or you’re watching, or in the show notes. So if I wasn’t over training, what was I doing wrong?

[00:04:27] I needed to understand what recovery actually means. Recovery isn’t just about your muscles repairing. It’s about managing your total stress budget. Yes, like an accountant. Here’s the key. Sometimes moving less helps. Sometimes moving smarter helps. Sometimes sitting still makes it worse. Here’s the difference between rest, recovery and inactivity.

[00:04:47] Rest equals complete stop of activity after doing something hard, like a long or tough workout, usually called. Passive recovery. Recovery equals smart activity after a big workout that lowers your total stress and helps your body adapt to that hard workout. It’s usually called active recovery.

[00:05:03] Inactivity equals doing nothing for a while after doing no activities. More sleep is critical for recovery, but only after you’ve stressed your body with training sitting around after you’ve been. Sitting and laying around all day isn’t recovery. That’s just being lazy. So all things in moderation, even rest, even doing too much, all things in moderation, all three of those are tools in your toolbox that need to be used at different times and really only you or a very specific coach that’s experienced.

[00:05:29] Who knows all your moves should be able to use. I’d say most likely it’s you. For some people, especially those with A DH, D, like me, complete rest can actually make things worse. ’cause my brain it spirals, I get anxious and your sleep gets worse. And ironically, I end up more stressed out. Out the next day and feeling flat.

[00:05:46] That’s why I had to learn the difference between those three things, which again, is inactivity, recovery, and rest, and that created a recovery protocol. So what does Smart Recovery actually look like in practice to help you with that? I created the Recover Smarter Guide. It’s a free training cheat sheet of sorts that gives you all the things I talked about in this episode, but in a easy to use guide, plus you’ll get a free base training run far without getting tired training plan.

[00:06:11] So it’s like a two for one. Click the QR code here or link below in the episode description to get it. Okay. So if recovery isn’t just about sitting still, what should you actually do on recovery days? Let me break it down. Let’s focus on active recovery options. So active recovery means movement that makes you feel better, not more tired.

[00:06:27] Here’s what that actually looks like fy I did a whole deep dive on cross training and what activities are closest to running to help maintain and even build run fitness. Check that out up here. Or the link in the episode description. I go deeper on this stuff, but here’s a quick summary. So you can do aqua jogging or swimming, ’cause the water takes the loads off your joints while getting in run.

[00:06:45] Specific cardio maintenance. I love aqua jogging, uh, swimming’s. Okay. It’s not as specific to running, but it’s fine if that’s all you have or you like doing it. You could do a light bike spin at again, all this is at zone one or zone two, heart rate. Uh, you should be able to speak very well. If you have a power meter, you know what power you should be at.

[00:07:02] You can do a 20 minute walk, ideally in a park near water. It helps you mentally. A pro level mental boost is to not have any stimulation. No podcast, no music, no phone on you. Looking at it. Just walk. Keep your heart rate below a hundred, 110 minutes. Big bonus. Morning walks with some sunlight in your eyes with no glasses.

[00:07:18] Helps reset your cortisol. You can do yoga or mobility work. Emphasize on stretching and breathing. Don’t wanna do power. Yoga shouldn’t be hard. Or you could play your favorite non endurance sport in a chilled out non-competitive way, like shooting around with a basketball, dribbling a soccer ball, swinging a bat.

[00:07:34] Golf club, et cetera. Think of the activity like this, blood flow without a training stimulus. So you get the blood moving, it delivers nutrients to all parts of your body. You flush out waist, lower cortisol. It’s not building fitness, but it does however, maintain fitness. So when your Strava score drops, do not freak out.

[00:07:49] I found it’s more right when it goes up. Strava is more correct. Then when you’re going down and you’re either in a recovery week or you’re in the off season, do not trust that score. But if your heart rate climbs into zone three and zone four and you feel tired after this workout, this is not a recovery workout.

[00:08:05] Gotta keep it easy. Alright, passive recovery, sometimes you need complete rest. Here’s what that looks like. You need to eat enough. Don’t starve your recovery because you’re not training that day. This is a tough one to grasp because while you might not be very hungry, if you had a big training load the day or week before, then your body needs to fuel.

[00:08:22] The day or two after I found, even though I’m not hungry, I need to keep eating or I’ll feel very, very bad. Mainly protein and carbs. You can do powders, you can do meat. If you are an omnivore, you can do all the vegan stuff, the nuts, seeds, et cetera, if you wanna do that. I did a deep dive on this at the episode up here or episode below in the description.

[00:08:41] You want to aim for it. Point. Two, one gram of protein per pound or kilo. It works for both of your body weight. Do not cut carbs more than 20% below. On your easy training days, your muscles rebuild 24 to 48 hours after that workout, not during it. So remember, keep eating properly, hydrate heavily because recovery requires water and balance electrolytes.

[00:09:02] That’s hydration and you need a lot of it in balance. So what does that actually look like for metric people? International crowd drink about 30 milliliters per kilogram of body weight daily, plus 500. For every half kilo loss during your last workout American version, drink half your body weight and ounces daily, plus a pint for every pound loss during your last workout.

[00:09:21] The easiest way is just to drink, to thirst or make sure your pee is about lemonade color, actual chill time, and after hydrating, you want to have. Proper chill time, not doom, scrolling, not work, emails, real rest things that don’t stress you out inside your body and your brain. Uh, I like to also do sauna.

[00:09:39] You can cold plunge, massage, foam rolling. If you have money and you have this accessible to you, light mobility work again, but very, very light, even less than yoga. If it helps lower your stress. So sauna, I’d say about 15 to 20 minutes at about 170 or 180 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about 75 to 80 degrees Celsius.

[00:09:58] Cold plunge don’t go longer than three or four minutes at as cold as you can handle it. Women, you could do a bit warmer. You don’t have to go super cold foam roll. Just focus on your stressful areas that have been injured. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Get high quality in the right amounts. It depends on the person, but I’d say seven to nine hours.

[00:10:14] I found I need more than seven, the higher my training load is, but I can do seven hours if I’m in the off season and I can take an easy week. Everyone’s sleep is different. Track your sleep consistency, go to bed and wake up within the same 30 to 45 minute window. I found your body recovers most during deep sleep.

[00:10:31] Here’s a quick sheet ’cause that was a lot of information. On how to tell a difference. This is also in that free download. Active recovery equals movement that makes you feel better after training equals movement that stresses you and then tires you out. So you need to recover from it. Even easy runs count as training.

[00:10:45] The rule of thumb, if your heart rate climbs way up into zone three and zone four, or your brain feels like it’s grinding, even when your heart rate’s low or your quads are sore for no reason, it’s not recovery. It’s still training. Now that you know what to do, let me tell you what not to do, because this is where most runners.

[00:10:58] Mess it all up, what not to do. Number one of what not to do. Don’t make up for skipping your run by packing your day with work stress. Just because you’re not training doesn’t mean it’s free for all. There’s EU stress, the good stuff like training and problem solving, which is very good. Humans need stress.

[00:11:14] We can’t have zero stress all the time, or we go crazy. You can’t have utopia. Everyone sipping. Umbrella drinks on the beach, but there’s two types of stress. There’s EU stress, the good stuff like training and problem solving and distress. The bad stuff that we associate with the word stress when life just feels annoying, but stress is stress, unfortunately, and it piles up.

[00:11:33] Your body doesn’t care. Your brain doesn’t care about the different types of stress. It’s still stress. So if you skip your run, but you work 12 hours straight, even if you love the work, you’re not recovering. You’re just moving the load around, pouring one thing in a cup to another. Number two thing not to do on recovery.

[00:11:47] Arrest days don’t. Turn it into a heavy hit leg day at the gym. But at strength work, you say, cool. But if your legs are fried from running, doing squats and deadlifts on your rest day, it won’t help. Your nervous system needs a break as much as your body. I do this sometimes. I try to get smarter about it.

[00:12:03] I just love moving around A DHD. Number three, don’t confuse easy zone two. Heart rate runs with recovery. This is something I still do because I can run quite fast at zone two now, but a zone two jog is still a training stimulus. It’s easy, but it’s not a recovery. So my body is taking all the, the pounding of the zone two run.

[00:12:22] And if you’re running, you’re still training. Number four, don’t go out with friends and drink dance. Run around till 3:00 AM and call it rest. Your body disagrees and your sleep pattern, it won’t be happy. Number five, don’t let your ego drive your training calendar. This was also another mistake, and I see this in a lot of runners.

[00:12:37] I thought skipping workouts made me soft when in reality ignoring my body signals made me injured and that was mentally soft. How to know when you need rest. So here are the warnings. Signs that I ignored. You wake up tired. Your resting heart rate is five to 10 BPS higher than your baseline for two plus days.

[00:12:51] I’m sure you have a smartwatch on. Go check that out. Go check the app, see where it is. You’re easily irritated. I know when that is. I snap at people, people in my family road rage email. I’m, ah, get away from me. Uh, my lower back actually starts to, um, seize up when I’m sitting too much and my eye starts to twitch.

[00:13:08] That’s when I know I’m really, really stressed out. Workouts, they just feel harder. Zone two pace, it drops 15 to 30 seconds per mile at the same effort. Or you just feel like it’s a much harder run than it should be, and this is, well, this is usually two, three weeks. I see people typing on Strava. That felt much harder than it should have been.

[00:13:25] It’s like, Ooh, that’s a sign that you might need two or three rest days. Another sign is that your motivation crashes. It’s gone and running in life in general. You’re like, I don’t wanna do it. Aches and stiffness. So. Anything that’s been like kind of annoying me over the last few months hurts way more.

[00:13:40] My hips get tighter too. Muscles are just sore glutes and quads. It’s just like calves. Everything just feels off. And my focus, me personally, and I know that it’s just way off work conversations, everything just feels like it’s taxing me. People aren’t giving me energy. They’re draining me once to use active recovery.

[00:13:56] You wanna move, but you don’t like that scheduled workout or whatever you have on there. Just go out and do whatever you think is. Easy, but you wanna move, you’ll feel better after, and you don’t wanna feel more tired. That’s when you know active recovery worked. When to use complete rest. When you’re totally fried and even light movement, it just feels impossible.

[00:14:13] Or five to 10 minutes into an easy workout, you feel worse than you did when you started. If you feel worse 10 minutes into a workout than you did when you started, that is a huge sign. Stop, go home, put your feet up, chill out. You’re showing multiple warning signs of what I’ve just talked about and or you’re coming off injury or illness, used complete rest.

[00:14:33] ’cause you need more rest days to get back up to your fitness. If you haven’t already. Go and download that recovery protocol training plan and guide and base training and all that at the QR code here or in the description so you know exactly what to do each week or whenever. You feel like over training’s about to hit you or you wanna be smart and get ahead of it.

[00:14:49] But here’s the thing, recovery is only needed when you don’t build up properly with the right base training. So go watch the next episode on base training and find out how to run farther and longer without getting tired. Get it below or in the episode description base.