Today I was reminded of how important the recovery part of
our training is. While I was feeling a little tired when I woke up, I figured I'd be okay because I woke up without my alarm. I went out for
a walk with Kyle, shoveled some snow, did some chores around the house and by
11am, I was ready for a nap. I tried to convince myself I was just being lazy,
but when I basically fell asleep mid-conversation, it became clear my body
wasn’t just asking for sleep, it was demanding it!
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| One of my recent power naps |
I used to make fun of Pablo’s need for 8+ hours of sleep. After all my favorite quotes used to be “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” and “No one looks back on their life and remembers the nights they had plenty
of sleep." Even after my friend who is a fitness instructor told me all
she does on busy work days is workout, sleep and eat, I didn’t take sleep seriously…sleeping a lot, I used to say, is a waste of time. Well, I was wrong.
Great things DO happen when you sleep, especially if you’re an athlete! As our coach says, if you skimp on sleep, you may as well not do your workouts. That’s probably a bit extreme, but the point is that sleep, and other recovery methods, are a super important part of your training. When you rest your muscles rebuild themselves and your body adapts to the stress you are putting it through when you workout.
Great things DO happen when you sleep, especially if you’re an athlete! As our coach says, if you skimp on sleep, you may as well not do your workouts. That’s probably a bit extreme, but the point is that sleep, and other recovery methods, are a super important part of your training. When you rest your muscles rebuild themselves and your body adapts to the stress you are putting it through when you workout.
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| Kyle sure knows the power of sleep! |
You might not look back on life and remember the nights you had plenty of sleep, but without those nights you won’t have great things to look back during the day either!
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