How important are rest days?

hearndenemma

hiya,

Training for an enduro in september(i know long way off) :oops: But started from poor fitness level so need plenty of time to train !! At present do 2 sessions interval training sessions on the bike using HR moniter doing 45 minutes , then 1 endurance session increasing time on bike every few weeks, and 1 session doing circuits for my core strength. My problem is that working shifts sometimes do not get a rest day if i am going to fit all the training in. Is this a major problem ?

Wooliferkins

You have a long time to train and rest is important. Overtraining can be worse than not enough. Try and get into a 5 week cycle of, easy, moderate, hard, very hard then a rest week. This doesn't mean do nothing just potter and recover. If you work backwards from your event with a rest week before the event you should be fine.

Surf-Matt

I very rarely have a day without fairly vigorous exercise at some stage - MTBing, road cycling, running, surfing, weights, etc.

I think you can get away with it but not with full on weight lifting stuff - you need rest days for your muscles to recover and repair.

If you're overdoing it, you will feel cr4p pretty quickly and know it's time for a rest.

supersonic

The fitter you get, the less time you need to recover from a specific exercise intensity and period. When starting out it is very important to rest frequently.

rhyko7

all IMO, not really fact just things ive picked up from reding varous sources:

rest days are just as important as the exercise days, essentially all exercise you do is developing muscles in one way or another, whether its legs or heart. a muscle will not heal and strengthen if it is constantly stressed without time to rebuild, probably over 90% of competetive amature athletes are guilty of overtraining without realising it, its only those with coaches and the elite that are really well discliplined that do just the right ammount, the rest of us have no idea how much is the right ammount really.

although it is ok to do gentle rides for an hour or so on rest days that rise the heart rate up to around 70 %-this gets the blood flowing into the muscles and can speed up recovery.

i dont think you should follow a structue of when to have rest days, rather listen to what your body is telling you, i.e. if you are tired and sore then have a day off other wise you are just over training and taking 3 steps forward and 2 back, on the other hand if you were going to have a rest day but feel great and full of energy, then go out and kick some butt!
i train with a mix of weights and cardio work, so i tend to have a rest or a recovery cardio session every 3 days depending on how i feel.

Thewaylander

How about reast month and a half of being fat?

Best get out i think

hearndenemma

HI

Thanks will take on board what you are all saying ! Do always rest when over done it !! My rides are much more challenging in this weather as I don't let it put me off, only when couldn't get out of bed with flu Also been putting my 3 year old on back of bike, she says 'mummy why you going so slow up the hills' :oops: My husband is horrified that I put a baby seat on back of expensive mountain bike :roll: Its a bike right ! And it makes you work harder !

carbonfiend

:shock: you are training for an enduro is September 2010 now!! No matter how unfit you are you run the risk of burning out and injury. Take it easy wait till the the spring at very least if you are stressing about rest days now in december then this isn't the right place to be - seriously I would advise you chill out a bit

hearndenemma

hey carbonfiend

wouldn't call myself stressed ! new to mtb set a goal and trying to achieve it. The enduro will take be most probaly me 6 hours. I disagree about waiting till spring to start training, when at present can only manage 1.5 hrs on bike and thats working at comfortable pace ! Anyhow its good to get out on the bike thats the whole point of mtb I thought :? an example of my training because am on nights this week is ; 45min interval tues, circuits wednesday, 1 hrs at 70% max hr friday, and 45 min interval sat. If I could I would space it am I better dropping session :?: But feel fine and increase duration every 4 weeks.

supersonic

I think what he is saying is that you could start much later and still be as fit for the Enduro.

But if you are enjoying it, not overdoing it and not hurting yourslef then there should be no problems.

Surf-Matt

And surely it's better to have a lesser fitness "mountain" to climb too?

carbonfiend

When you are 'unfit' your body makes significantly quicker adaptations to exercise stress than when you are fit. The fitter you are the harder it is to get to get fit and you have sooo much time. Riding for 1.5 hours when your event is 6 hours is absolutley fine trust me when you come to up the miles you will have no problem especially when the weather and light breaks. I would lay off the intervals keep up the core work and just ride the bike, get used to turning your legs over without feeling you have any undue pressure on yourself to do anything, you are going to need to save all that for when its time to really push not now in early winter - My wife run a marthon with 18 weeks training with virtually no base fitness 6 months after having our 2nd child and was still breast feeding.

hearndenemma

ok thanks will try !! although not exercised in 10 years (I stopped to have the kids and enjoy overeating !) I was very competitive with whatever i did so i think now I am probaly being hard on myself expecting too much, although it feels great getting fit and the bonus is the weight loss !! But like you say don't want to end up with an injury and not being able to ride. The only thing i have notice with interval training is hills much easily now ! maybe should drop it to one session instead of 2. However will take everyones views onboard thanks.

carbonfiend

good luck

tubaonwheels

I'm planning on doing some long events next year. At the moment I'm not worried about structured training, just getting out when I can/want. Being a bit of an old git I 'have' to take rest days - I probably average 5 days (bike or run/jog) a week. I will probably try and structure training more in the New year, once I have an idea of which events I may be doing. I have to say though, that my main aim is just to stay fit and enjoy my biking. Like most sports, the fitter you are the more you enjoy it .

Jedi

rest loads and frequent. nothing worse than leaving your best on the training field not the main event

Pokerface

I rest 6 days a week. Sometimes 7.