Why sometimes more is less! the importance of rest....
"Ugh rest, that won't make me a better runner!" is a common phrase used by most new runners as they are eager to improve! However rest is nearly as important as training itself!
The famous equation for growth is stress + adaption = growth. The stress in this case is the training and the growth is improving as a runner! So whats adaption? Well this is the period after training when your body repairs itself from the previous stress to become more able to cope with this stress in the future. Sounds an awful lot like recovery, that is because it is!
If you start training too hard without giving yourself days to recover you will most likely get injured or get worse as your body starts to break down from the training overload!
Sometimes it is okay to feel tired from a training cycle e.g upping mileage but you should always have a down-week every 4-5 weeks to help your body adapt.
On days when you have a tough session it is usually fine to leave the session feeling like you could have given more. Giving 100% in every session will leave you tired and demotivated for the next session. You should be controlled and always able to keep your form together.
On most training plans sessions sometimes have a variable amount of work to be done depending on how the athlete is feeling. E.g. on Tuesday your training plan might say 7 X 3 mins at lactate threshold but instead it could say 6-8 X 3 mins. This a great idea as it gives the athlete options on how hard they want the workout to be based on how they feel throughout! This will help overcome over-training as the athlete can listen to their body. I would also recommend stopping once the form breaks down as that is an injury will become likely.
So sometimes it is okay to take a step back from training to help your body recover. You cant go hard everyday so recovery/off days are a must! The problem with many athletes is that their hard days are too easy and their easy days are too hard. By keeping your easy days easy and your hard days hard you will benefit more from training and stay injury free!!