“To do your best, you need to rest.”

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“Are you going to run when you’re in Mexico?”, a friend asks me, as I take a sip of my coffee.

I almost snort it through my nose.

Laughing and choking at the exact same time, I respond with a vehement “NO!”

We stare at each other for a moment, both of us a little bit stunned by the immediacy of my response, before we crack up, laughing.

My training up to Pittsburgh was strong. I completed the race 22 minutes faster than my Garmin predicted that I would. I resumed my gym time just days after the race. In the weeks that followed, however, my desire to run has greatly waned. This is a normal cycle, I know, and I’m no stranger to the need for a little downtime following a major race event. Even elite athletes take a minimum of several weeks off after a peak performance.

While I am far from “elite”, and I will not be taking several weeks off, I am most certainly choosing to prioritize rest for the next 7 days.

The point of this blog is not to garner your sympathy for my residual post-race fatigue or to induce a chuckle at the thought of me, so enthusiastically refusing to do what I’ve fought so hard to be physically capable of doing again. Rather, the point is to remind you that too much of a good thing isn’t always the best thing. Periods of rests are necessary pit stops along the road we travel in order to reach our goals.

Strength training is definitely a good thing, and keeping on a consistent running schedule is key to maintaining our form and fitness level. But, all too often, we tend to believe that more is better.

More miles. More days. More reps. More weight. In some cases, this may be true. Adding a bit more to the mix can absolutely be the key to moving us forward in pursuit of our goals. But there is often a point where too much of a good thing no longer produces additional benefits. And, at a certain point, if you keep stacking more on top of more, your risk of regression or injury increases significantly.

How do you determine exactly where that point is?

That’s a question that I don’t have the answer to, because it’s different for everyone. But, a lot of times, a little common sense is all you really need to decide, for yourself, when and where a good thing becomes a bit too much. And, not for nothing, I’m now fairly certain that resuming my own training, just 48 hours after an event, definitely qualifies as too much of a very good thing.

It’s time to make my pit stop… Mexico, here I come!!!

#BeyondTheBoylstonLine