Episode 15: Permission to Rest: Why Doing Less Sometimes Moves You Forward

If you needed a sign to rest—this is it.

We glorify the grind so much that rest starts to feel like weakness. But the truth? Rest is the work. It’s where your body adapts, your energy rebuilds, and your love for running gets protected from burnout.

In this episode, I’m diving into the mindset, the guilt, and the reality of taking time off—especially for runners juggling full lives, families, jobs, and everything in between. Because sometimes the hardest thing to do is nothing.

You’ll hear about:

• Why we struggle to rest (and why it’s not your fault)
• What “active recovery” and mental rest can actually look like
• How to know when your body’s asking for a break
• How to schedule rest without guilt or fear of losing fitness
• The mindset shift that makes recovery part of consistency

If your legs feel heavy or your brain’s just… done, this one’s for you.

Because you don’t need to earn the pause—you just have to take it.

Takeaways:
🟡 Rest days aren’t missed days—they’re investment days.
🟡 Adaptation happens when you recover, not when you grind.
🟡 Doing less doesn’t mean you care less—it means you’re in it for the long game.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Real-life recovery signs (sleep, irritability, heavy legs)
• How to tune into effort using RPE
• Why “consistency includes recovery”

Links & Resources for This Episode

• Recovery episode: Episode 6: The invisible part of training: How to really recover
• Follow me on Instagram
• Visit my website: www.sunrisetrailscoaching.com
• Want to work together? Learn about 1:1 Coaching
• Free guide: What’s In My Pack? Download here

Transcript

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Hey y'all, welcome back to Dirt Nap Diaries. I'm your host, Brittany Olsen, trailrunner, women's trailrunning coach, hype woman, and professional overpacker of the mid-run snacks. This show is for the everyday trailrunner, the ones training on real-life legs and real life time. You've got slack pinging, kids asking where their shoes are, laundry piles you could snowshoe through, a dog who's too cute to leave without some extra pets, and a cat who somehow saves their puke for your run window. You're not here out here chasing podium spots, you're chasing finish lines, sunrises, and maybe a little sanity. This podcast is about trail running, but it's also about navigating life. The hard seasons, the joyful ones, and the ones where everything feels like too much. So let's get into it. Alright, uh, personal life updates that I like to give. Um, no huge news. I have hired a performance coach very recently. Um, things are very, very busy, um, which will lead in today's topic too. Um, but it's definitely uh I've been pretty tired lately trying to figure things out. Um, I've gained a little bit of weight. Uh the legs didn't feel like they were turning over as much as they should. Just a lot. And I was just, I mean, overall, I was just feeling really exhausted. And I don't know if I was close to burnout. Um, I don't feel that right now, so which is good. But um, so I've got a performance coach. We're um, you know, making sure, like, hey, you know, eating less processed food, um, doing some particular workouts, um, talking about what we need, um, because I'm doing Coca-Dona 250 in May. Yay! But what I need for that, like what I need to do now to get ready for that big training block that's coming up, and then continue, you know, doing the work through that so I can build more endurance, build more strength, um, lose some of that weight that I've gained. And, you know, I don't talk about weight loss a lot, guys, but it's okay to want to lose, and I've got a little bit I want to lose right now. Um, but really what I'm looking forward to is like performing better and stronger um than what I did a couple months ago at Moog. So granted, Moog was definitely some stomach issues, but I still like there are things that I could do um to make my performance better. And when I race, I like to compete. So um there's there that is. So super excited. Um really started last week um working with him, Omar, and then you know, this week we're really getting into it. So super excited for that. Um, but right now, like one of the big things is like what he's doing is taking away certain decisions from me. And I mean that in a good way. Like when I coach athletes, there's I'd coach athletes for a long time. A lot of them stick with me for a long time. And what it is is some of them I think could even coach themselves. Like they're smart, they know what's what's going on. I've planned a few races for them, like we've I've coached them through different races. But a lot of what's happening is like there's a lot of decision fatigue, especially for women who make a lot of those household decisions too. I know men do too. I'm not gonna exclude y'all out of this, but there is such a thing as like decision fatigue, and sometimes I'll call it outsourcing those decisions to somebody else, is what's needed. So right now I've outsourced my own running to uh another coach, Liz My uh Myers. She's freaking fantastic, by the way, super communicative, and like gets my rambles. Um, and then I've got Omar now who's doing that performance piece of it, which is super, super helpful to give me space to not only work my full-time consulting job, but to be the best coach I can be for my athletes. Um, and so I don't feel so tired and fatigued and all of that stuff. So perfect now transition, that little segue into the topic of today, which is that permission to rest. Um, so we're that's what we're gonna get into it. Um, and I almost didn't record this podcast episode because I was just feeling wiped. Um I was tired and I was like, oh my gosh, like what can I talk about? Like, I'm just feeling some kind of way. I feel like I'm like over caffeinated just to get through the day. Um, I'm sleeping at night, but it's still not enough. And I was like, I don't even know, like my brain's not even gonna be able to talk. Um and then my brain, my brain doesn't talk, my mouth does, guys. Who knew? Um, I just learned that. But um, yeah, but then I was like, wait, why can't I do a topic about rest? Because like that's really what I need. And rest does not always mean sleep, y'all. Like, sleep is good, sleep is part of rest, but there's other rests that can happen too. It's taking pauses in your day, in your life, in your weeks, like figuring out what that looks like for you. Um, so what I've been feeling though is like it's the kind of tired where like my body was actually pretty fine. Like, I mean, like I felt a little bit of heaviness in my legs a couple times, you know, and all of that. But it was really my brain, which is just like has been done. Like it's taking everything I have, like just to focus through like the must-do's and let alone like the the like want-to-dos. So it was that kind of tired. So that's when I was like, hey, this is the perfect episode right here. So let's do it. Um, but a lot of us are, we're especially like women and men too, but we're balancing a lot. We're balancing training, work, family, life. I mean, just just about everything. And we treat rest like it's optional, right? And we can't keep that up. We are human, and as we get older too, we will feel that more and more. I know, you know, early 20s, you know, I could go out and party all night and like get up for class and get to softball practice and like do all the things, and there is no way, no way I could even keep that schedule. Like right now, I feel like I do okay with sleep comparatively to what I used to do, and it's still like a struggle some days. So, and then a lot of times we feel like we have to earn that rest too. Um, like we need to do A, B, and C, and then we can we can rest. We we can do that. Um, but what we need to realize is that rest isn't the reward. It's part of the work that we're doing, and it's not just part of the work for training, it's part of the work in our life. So, like, we have to stop treating that rest as a reward. So, um, there's a lot of reasons why we struggle to rest. Part of it is how really like our society um thinks about people. Like, we glorify that grind, right? Um, I feel like there's definitely like some changes that have happened since, you know, since I started in my like corporate career. Because I remember like in the beginning, it was just like heads down, do the work, do the work, do the work, get rewarded with somebody else's work for doing all the work and just keep going. Like, just work the hours, even if you're salaried, like it doesn't matter. Just keep going. Um, and I'm not saying that's gone. I still have worked corporate jobs where I got more work because of the work. Probably some of you are like that too. Um, but like now, like now that I'm a consultant, now it's different. Like, I have stepped back from that grind mentality because like you can still do amazing work, but you don't have to keep grinding yourself down. Um, but it is a reason why sometimes we struggle, and sometimes I have to fight that struggle because it is glorified. Like the harder you work, the people are like, oh, you work so hard. And you like there's even like some external validation with that, but we got to work through that. Um, when it comes to running, like we think more miles equals more progress or more time on feet equals more progress. Um and as I've I've discussed this before in podcast episodes, but that isn't always the case. Like, um, you know, like I coach people, and it's not always about like being out there longer or for more miles to get more progress. Like, rest has to be built into that. Um, like I assign runs for trail runners based on time on feet. Um, and I have some who will be like, hey, like I ran this far in this amount of time. So what I know is like they're pushing themselves harder to fit a certain mileage in a certain amount of time when all they should really be doing is focusing on an easy effort in that amount of time and not the mileage. But we still have that whole thing of like, I can't go easy on myself, I can't rest, I can't do this because more equals more progress. It doesn't even have to be miles, it can be more of anything, more hours at work, um, more cleaning at home, um, you know, more like time with friends, whatever it is, but it doesn't always mean there's progress or there's even good coming from that. Um, another thing is a lot of us feel like rest days feel lazy. Um, and not just from running, but like, hey, you have a day, you are tired, and you're like, I, you know, I really don't want to do anything, but you push through. You keep pushing through. Whether you don't take a rest day from from running or lifting, um, whether you're just feeling some kind of way and you're just, you can you can feel the fatigue, but you push through. Like, I just need to do one load more load of laundry. Um, I just need to do this one more thing. And then you're not allowing your body that rest time that you need to actually be able to perform better in running and in life. Uh, we also don't trust ourselves to slow down. Uh, and that's, hi guys, that's me. If you're wondering, um, if you would look at my calendar, you'd be like, does she sleep? I do. Um, but a lot of times, like when you get that momentum going, which is great, I believe firmly, it's part of my philosophy, it's one of my forums, is momentum. But like, you but then once you get in that momentum, you're like, okay, well, I'm just gonna keep going. Well, I'm gonna let you know momentum doesn't always keep going either. We need those rest days to actually, because it's remember what it is, it's part of the work. So having those rest days actually keeps the momentum going, which maybe for some doesn't make sense, but we have to trust ourselves that it's okay to slow down sometimes. It's okay to rest because be resting is part of that work that's gonna keep us going. And when you've got the mental load of work, caregiving, errands, emotional labor, the rest guilt can hit even harder. Um, you might see that, man, like there is shit just piling up on the floor, or like emotionally things are not going well. Last week was a pretty heavy episode, but like, you know, if you if anybody is aware of the state of our country at all, you're feeling a lot of things. You're feeling a lot of emotions. I'm an empath, so like I feel those things pretty hard. But like, there is so much mental load that comes with like just even seeing the mess on the floor or realizing what's happened to our country, or um seeing like, oh my gosh, I need to get strength training and running in, and like I've got to get my kid to this place. Like, so there is a mental load with the actual physical acts of things that we're doing, and that and trying to rest can make that guilt hit really hard because we want to rest. But guess what, guys? Y'all can love running and you still need the rest. And hopefully you can learn to love the rest. Probably not by the end of this episode, because honestly, it takes practice. But what you need to realize is those things aren't opposite, like needing rest and loving running. Um, even like, you know, loving cleaning. Yes, I do like to clean, y'all, but like even loving those things, they're not opposite. They should go together, right? It's part of the work. You're probably gonna hear me say it's part of the work several times because our brains need to hear the same thing over and over um for us to even like really take it in. Um, I don't know if I shared the stat before, and it might be updated. So, you know, you might want to Google this once you're done with this episode, but um, it used to be like you had to hear something like five to seven times for it to really stick. And I saw recently that that number is up to 15 times of hearing something or reading something for it to like stick in your brain and like maybe even act upon. So it's not necessarily you don't remember what was said to you, but more like getting it really like ingrained in your brain. So when you hear me repeat things throughout episodes, that is like on purpose, um, for the most part, unless I just start rambling because that's my way too, but like because you need to hear that uh repeatedly for it to actually stick, stick in her noggins. So all right, but anyway, how do we reframe rest though? What does that look like? Well, one thing that I do just remind myself of, and now it's just kind of in my brain all the time, is that adaptations happen when you rest. Um, that goes for running and for life. But we're gonna focus on running here, and I'll I'll parallel it with life a little bit so you can see what I'm talking about. But like when you rest, like your muscles start to recover. So when we lift, when we run, you know, we're we're we're having these little like micro tears in our muscles. Um, again, remember, I don't get super science-y here, but there are things in your body we are inflamed, like we are constantly moving, and as humans, we do need time to rest so our bodies can recover from that. So whenever we do run the next day, or even if we take a couple days off, we are stronger because we took a rest day. So keep that in mind. The adaptations do happen when you rest. Super, super important. So, yes, sometimes we do have to grind it out to get to those rest days, but it's not to the point of grinding it out where you're like just burning out. Some days just a workout feels a little bit harder. And that's where sometimes that differentiation differentiation is hard to figure out. Where like, am I really fatigued today? Or was it just like, hey, that was a hard, that was just a hard day, and I, you know, worked my way through it. So, yes, yes, like you do have to do your workouts, like you do get your runs in, but rest is important because that's when things settle down in your body, and that's whenever like the recovery happens, and that's how you build that strength, that endurance, those muscles, and all of that. So, like, let's think of that about that with life too. Um, I'm a person who uh before I was married, I was a minimalist. I had very little things. There was a joke that my apartment was that of a serial killer because there was nothing on the walls, everything had its place, you know. Um, just ready, ready to like apparently murder somebody. I have not done that, um, and nor do I plan to. But uh that was kind of like the joke of it all because that's just how I was. I didn't have a bunch of extra stuff. I don't keep a lot of like memories. In fact, I have got rid of a lot of like race medals and things too. I've donated them to different places. Um, I just don't have that like that piece of it. Now that I'm married, we are too different when it comes to that. Uh he Greg is a little bit of a collector. By the way, it's his birthday today. Happy birthday, Greg. Um, but like he's definitely more of that like collector. So I'm getting somewhere with this, y'all. It does go back to rest. But like for me personally, like, even when things are picked up, I just feel like there's a bunch of stuff around, and I was like, oh my god, there's a pile here, and ah, and like my brain is just like sometimes it feels like it's constantly in motion. And there are days, like I said, like I actually do like I enjoy cleaning, it's something different. I put a podcast in my ears normally, because that's about the only time I haven't listened to podcasts. Um, and I just and I do some cleaning and I get some stuff done. But lately, and this is where this episode came episode idea came from, is like I have not really felt like hardly doing anything. Like doing dishes has been hard. Finishing up laundry has sucked, cleaning out the kitty litter box, um, you know, like even like meal prep. Um, some of that has just felt a heck of a lot harder lately. And but what I was doing is I was just grinding through. Like I was making all of like, I was doing all the things I had like committed to and like I was still doing the things, but like I was just flat out exhausted and like I wasn't at my best. And I was like, what do I need to do? Well, first of all, I did out, like I said, I out I just outsourced to a performance coach for a couple things. Um, I've already outsourced to a running coach to get rid of those decisions for me. Like those are gone now. Um, but then I just took some time and didn't do a damn thing one day, which for me that is that's where it's hard. Like I'm like, ah, like what am I gonna laugh? But I could tell I was fatigued and I was getting snippy, like I was getting impatient and I'm a very patient person. Like I was feeling all these things. So just taking that like rest day from even like life, yes, I mean, I still like it's not like I just like lay in bed and didn't move. Like it was just more to like not worrying about, hey, I've got a little bit of laundry to do, or hey, this is is just like taking that space. Um, because I don't like being snippy and I don't like feeling tired all the time. And just taking that day, and sometimes we need multiple days, y'all. That's what vacation's for too. Take your vacation time. Um, but taking that time really helped me like have that mental reset um in life. So, like when it's like you get stronger on recovery days from running, the same can happen on those rest days in life too. Because if you feel yourself being very like short-tempered, um fatigued, like just anything. If you feel yourself getting mad at your cat for some reason or your dog, like right, you get you just feel that impatience. More than likely, you need to take a chill pill, take a minute, um, take a day, whatever it is you can do. And yes, our lives are different. So I get sometimes you cannot take a whole day, especially with kids and animals and things like that, but you need to be able to rest because when you are resting from things, your brain and your body have time, and that way you're not so snippy. You're able to do things better in life. You are able to perform better. I remember I was trying to just do laundry, and I was like, I am slow as shit right now. You gotta take the time, take the time for yourself. And like I kind of mentioned here, I alluded to with that like example there, that parallel with life, is it can look different depending on what you need. It might be a full full day off. Like it might just be, hey, I'm not doing any workouts today, I'm not doing laundry, I'm not doing this shit. And we've got to do it without guilt. And that's that's the big part of the process. However, part of the doing the process of like taking a full day out off and doing nothing, like doing no workouts. Maybe it's like no workouts, no laundry, but like I still going to my kids like sports thing, right? But taking that time without guilt, that's the important piece. How do you get to that no guilt? You keep taking that that time off. You keep taking those rest whenever you need it, and you realize the world doesn't fall apart. You realize your training does not like go down the toilet because you took that day. Um, you realize that, oh my gosh, I took that time and I'm running harder. Um, I'm more patient at home. Uh, you know, the the laundry monster did not come or the laundry police did not come and arrest me. Those kinds of things. Like, so it is, in my opinion, it is really taking that time and doing it before you stop feeling that guilt. So and it may never go 100% go completely away because we are human, but it will get better. Uh rest can also look like active recovery. And what I mean by that is instead of doing maybe what you normally do, because some some some people, what it is is like when they like if they take rest and they totally just like sit and don't do anything, it piles up in their brain, or like they just need to move to actually get that little bump. Like for me, what I'm doing right now is um I am actually like, even if I'm not running the morning, I'm walking because that gets my brain going, but I'm not doing anything else. Like, it's a walk on my off day, and it just gets me going. Like it gets the brain, it gets the brain moving. Um, some people do yoga, some people do mobility and stretching. Um, those are two different things, by the way. I should do an episode on that. But like it's still resting the rest of the day. These are things that are that are not getting your heart rate super high. It's still considered rest, and um you're still moving and you're still feeling better. And then maybe you take that mental rest too. So, like, this is a big one for I feel like just how the world is now, but maybe it's even logging off of Strava. I don't check Strava that much. A lot of people who follow me know that. Um, but I do have it. But maybe it's like logging off of social media for the day or for the week. Um, I bring up social media because we all do that. It could even be not watching so much Netflix. Like some people feel like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna take a load off and I'm gonna go just sit and like watch something. There's nothing wrong with watching stuff on Netflix ever, by the way, or like watching stuff all the time on why am I struggling with this? There's no problem with like actually watching something on Netflix or whatever streaming service you use. However, what it is is when that's kind of always your escape to just sit there and do nothing, your brain is actually thinking that whole time, there are things going on, the screen is a certain color, all of these things. So your brain is actually being um like passively active where it's still taking in the things and it's not really resting. So you like watching TV is not necessarily a rest. So it might be like turning off all the digital things for a bit um and not looking at them. And it's just going outside. Maybe it's to read, maybe it's to sit. Um, I do caution what you listen to whenever you're trying to rest because some things could actually work you up. Um, I have a couple of like playlists that I specifically like. One's like classical music for studying, one is called uh like dream pop and shoe gaze, but there's things that are very light music, and I can actually just sit outside, and now it's really nice, so I can do that and just be. Um, so that's the mental rest. It's logging off the things, it's maybe not turning on the TV for that day. Um, and just like letting things be for that time and like listening to something that does not excite you. I mean, I love listening to crime podcasts, that is my thing, y'all. Um, but like even at those times, sometimes I won't do that because like I just need to chill out. But really think but what you need to do too is think about a time where like you were exhausted and just like push through anyway, right? Like we've been there, right? I've talked about how the grind is glorified already. Like, how did the next workout feel? Um I know for me when I've pushed, it's like, nope, like that was not a good workout. And I even an easy run, like I could feel my legs just like done, my brain was done. Um, I there's been times where I just wanted to cry, and I was like, I have no reason to cry right now. Like, I'm not feeling some kind of way. I'm just tired. But like, think about that whenever you are getting that exhaustion, when you do keep pushing through things. And how does the next day feel or the next workout feel? Probably not very good. Um, I have athletes who I do adjust their schedules. Like, I'll get a text, I'll get a voice message, I'll get something in there just like, man, like, and they'll tell me what they're feeling, and I'm like, we're we're giving you a rest day tomorrow. Like, period. That's that's what you get. And then you might get another one. It just depends on what's going on. Am I saying continuously use things as an excuse? No, I'm pretty good at calling people out on excuses, but there are times when you need that rest day, when you have to take a break. Like, I will tell my own coach too, just like what the hell is going on in my life. Um, and sometimes she might give me an extra rest day too. And it's okay to rest. Remember, it's part of the work. Ah, I repeated that again. I don't know what number I'm at, guys. Hope somebody's counting for me. Um, so now think about the next like the last time did you gave yourself permission to skip a run or nap or chill? Like, what does that feel like when you do that? And maybe you haven't done that, so like this will be the first time you're trying it, but like I'm gonna tell you you're gonna come back sharper. And that's what we're after. You're gonna feel better, your legs are gonna turn over better. Um, you're gonna feel a lot more joy, right? When you get exhausted, that joy goes away, and like I mentioned, that short temper, that impatience, all of that like is there. So just think about that. So if you if you've given your permission to self to skip, like how did you feel in the next not not like right away, because a lot of times if we do give permission to skip right away, we might feel guilty. Um so or we probably will feel guilty actually, but right away, but don't think about that immediate feeling because that's just kind of how some of us think. Think about what happened the next time, like you went for a run, the next time you strength trained, the next day, like when your husband was chewing and like you didn't react so impatiently. Whatever that looks like, like we are after that feeling after after you've rested. That's what we want to feel. So, how do you know when you need it? And that's a tough one, and it can be unique for each situation, right? Um, I always go back to trail running with this because really it is a trail running podcast. Um, but like when you are like, are my trail runs feeling like a slog? Is my strength training feeling like a slog? Like, am I lifting less and I am still super fatigued? You know, I mentioned this earlier. Am I more irritable than usual? Like, is that short temper there? Am I impatient? Like, how can you feel? Are you snapping more? Like, are are you doing those things? How's my sleep? Checking on the sleep, right? Am I not sleeping well? And you're like, wait, that's part of rest. Yes, that is part of rest. But if you are feeling some kind of way through the day, if you do have that exhaustion, but you are pushing through, pushing through, pushing through, it does impact your sleep. I know it's crazy to be that exhausted and not sleep, but we have all been there, I have a feeling. So think about like how is your sleep feeling? What's going on with that? Are you waking up? Are you tossing and turning? Is it taking you forever to fall asleep? Are you waking up way before your alarm? Think about that. Am I dreading the next workout the next day? That's a big one. Um, like think about that. Like, I absolutely love running, I love strength training. Like, those are my jams. Um, am I dreading those workouts? And I was actually feeling some dread a couple weeks ago. Like, I was like, I actually am, and I usually enjoy these. Like, I love these. These make me feel strong and powerful, and like I'm working towards some something, you know. Am I dreading like the next day because of like work or or I have laundry? And I'm not saying like I always enjoy work every single bit of every single day, but like why am I dreading it so much? Like this is something that I've been doing, you know, for years. Like I've been working for years. Like, am I dreading it because I'm fatigued? Am I dreading it because of something else? But typically for me, I'm definitely very tired if I'm dreading the next day because I'm a pretty positive poly, y'all. If you hadn't know if you didn't notice that, so um, but like think about those questions I just asked. Like, are runs feeling like a slog? Are my days feeling like a slog? Am I more irritable than usual? Am I not sleeping well? And am I dreading workouts or the next day? Like, if the answer is yes to any of those, or like especially multiples of those, like it's time time to pull back. Pull back a little bit, take, take some kind of rest. Again, you might not have time for a full rest day. I am human, you are human. We have kids and pets and like life things that we just can't stop. But remember, like, it is not weakness to realize that you need that rest, it's awareness, right? That's where we want to get, right? Where we want to be aware that we need rest, we want to rest so we can come back sharper and remember it's part of the work, a part of the work. So now, how do you actually rest and not feel guilty? So I already mentioned the not feel guilty part. A lot of times that guilt will not just stop. Like it's gonna take a little bit of time, right? Um, and a lot of times it is actually doing those things and realizing, hey, my fitness didn't go away. Hey, the laundry police didn't come, hey, like mold did not grow over all my dishes because I didn't do them until the next day. Um, I do like a clean sink by the way, but like it's okay not to wash them for at night. Um, so how do we do it though? Schedule your rest days like workouts. I did do a whole episode on recovery. I don't know what number it is. I'll put it in the show notes though. But like if you miss that one, like I do talk about rest days, recovery, and why it's all important. Um more it's mainly about recovery, but like your rest days are part of the work. So you put them in there, you look at your calendar. Like, how I do that is this is time blocking too. You gotta know where your time and energy is spent. I will look at a day and I'll be like, holy shit, what did I do? But what I do is I start thinking, there are things that I must do. I am a consultant, I have meetings I have to be in, I have projects I have to do. I am a coach, I have athletes to program, I have athlete calls, I have athlete text to respond to, I try to post to Instagram, I record this podcast. Like the must-dos um go into my calendar because those are things that have to be done, period. That's it. Right? And then I also consider, by the way, my workouts is must-dos. So my my running and my strength training, my biking, whatever it is I'm doing, those are must-do's. All right. Then around there, I do those like, you know, like I'll call them want-to-dos, even though sometimes they might feel like, you know, must-do's, but like I even have like time block for working on Instagram posts for my business. Um, I do not consider those must-do's every day. Um, so there's that. But I also have um time blocks for like, okay, like this is the day I'm gonna do laundry. All those things. But so I have all of my days pretty much so planned out. You know, I should share my calendar sometime. It's actually, it might make some people crazy, but for me, I like having that time. But then I do schedule rest days. Like I do look at my calendar, and granted, I have somebody um who's telling me, like, here's strength training, um, and then I have somebody who's telling me my running. So like I look at that and I figure out, okay, when is the rest day or when is the rest? Because there are some days, like, hey, let's take a whole day off. I don't chill a whole lot, I do pickleball, I do softball, you know, like I do different things, but like I do look at my counter and I'm like, okay, where where can I get rest and where is it needed to? So um, for me, like I do sometimes realize like I need to schedule a rest in the middle of my day. And is that rest like two hours? I don't get a CS to y'all. We are not a cool country like that, but like I do put a rest time period like sometimes, like especially if I have a heavy meeting day or something going on, I will. It might be 15 minutes, but it is the reset I need. I think it's every like 60 to 90 minutes, it's really best to even move, even if it's for two or three minutes, by the way. Um, I might have just made that up. No, I really didn't make that up. I read it somewhere, but the statistics change a little bit. Some things, some things say 60 minutes, some say 120 minutes, some say 90. Um, but it's just stepping away and moving. So like I actually have little ticks in my calendar that say that actually say move. And it doesn't mean move and like do some jumping jacks. It's just like to get up and walk away. And sometimes I just lay flat on my yoga mat for 10 minutes and that's the rest. And then other days it is like it's a complete rest day. I don't have too many of those. A lot of times it's Mondays for me just because of how my life works. Um, but it's it's not doing like anything. Maybe, you know, of course I ate, maybe I did the dishes that I ate from, you know, um whatever needs to be done, you know. I I respond to my athletes' text, I always do. But like Monday is the kind of the day that really works in my schedule for rest. So like look at your day, figure out what you're doing with it, and then figure out what days do work for a rest day or what moments through your day that work as rest moments for you. Don't make up missed runs, let them go. Um, that's a tough one, I think. Um I have athletes who are like, ah, like, you know, like I miss this run, can I make it up um tomorrow? And to me, there isn't a such thing as a made-up run. Like, you don't make it up. It's just gone. And that's okay. Like, it's okay to feel that way. If you have a little cold one day or a headache or something and you miss a run, you just go along with your normal schedule. Say you had a run scheduled one day that and you had a headache and you really couldn't run and the next day was a rest day. Guess what? You get two rest days, y'all. Like, and nothing gets adjusted, and then the next run you just hit. Um, so there is no making up of those missed runs. I'm gonna do a whole episode on that because I could do a whole episode on the missed runs thing. Because once you miss like two or three or four runs due to sickness or due to injury or due to something, like things start to change. So take note, Brittany. There it is. Um if you have a coach, communicate him with communicate with them. Like, especially if you need that extra downtime. Um, I don't always have athletes tell me they need a day off or they need extra downtime, but they're saying it another way. Um, they they're talking about how stressed out they are, they're talking about like how they slept. They're talking about um work and like how stressful it is. They're not necessarily saying like I need downtime or I need an extra day off. They're saying other things. So if you are saying, if you first off, if you have a coach, communicate. And if you are if you know you need downtime, just flat out say it. But like if you are saying things to your coach that's like, man, like this is stressing me out, this is how I'm feeling, these are things, take a note to yourself too. Like, oh wow, like maybe I do need some downtime today. Um, and if you don't have a coach, but you're saying those things to yourself or saying those things to your partner or saying those things to a friend, think about the extra downtime that you need, because that is important. Um, and fill your rest with something that restores you, right? That sounds kind of hippie to me, but I'm gonna say it anyway. Like, maybe it's time with your people. That's kind of part of my um rest. And my rest might look a little bit different than yours, and that's okay. But I work at home exclusively, and like time with my people restores me. So every Wednesday I have time with my people. On Thursday nights, I have time with my people. Um, sometimes Sunday mornings I have time with my people. Um, so that's that's a big thing for me, is doing that. And I think part of it is because I work at home so much. Um, and the other part is I like people. I like humans. So um maybe it's some some good food, some kind of some kind of food that you just really want to have, right? Like it's just like, you know what, I'm taking a day off and I'm gonna have this food that brings me comfort and pleasure. Maybe it's a long walk instead of pushing yourself, maybe it's getting out, maybe you just need a break from like everybody in your home, and the rest of what restores you is going for a long walk by yourself. Maybe it's with really calming music, maybe it's with nothing in your ears at all. Maybe you're spending that time to actually like with to be with your people, you're you're doing a phone call, right? I do encourage you like not to make it something too excitable, but like something that really does restore you. And it could be straight up nothing. Oh my gosh, if you have a day where you can do straight up nothing and you need it, take it. I know a lot of us do not have that time. Like we have so much going on in other people in our lives and we just can't do it. But maybe you can do straight up nothing Sunday. Even if you have kids, you can talk to your partner, hopefully, and maybe you can have a day where it's just straight up nothing. Um, it's reading a book and just chilling the fuck out. I mean, can you imagine that? But if you can manage that, take it. Take it when you can, take it when you need it. So and just so you know, nothing is something. And I'm gonna repeat that. Because nothing is something. Doing nothing can help restore you, right? Rest is part of the work. So we gotta shift that mindset, right? Shift that mindset to that. And granted, I've already mentioned a lot of it's gonna be doing these things, like actually taking action before you can actually shift the entire like mind to not feel guilty. Um, but rest days aren't miss days, they're investment days. So rest days aren't miss days, they're investment days. Keep that in your head. Consistency does include recovery. That is part of the consistent, it is very hard to stay consistent whenever you are totally burning yourself out. Also reminding yourself that you don't lose fitness overnight. We a lot of us have that fear of we're gonna lose our fitness or we're gonna gain this weight. I'm gonna let you know taking a rest day or two isn't gonna do that. Taking a rest week is not gonna do that. It takes a lot to lose what you've gained over such a long period of time. But also remember, you can lose joy if you never pause. You can lose joy if you never pause. You have to build that pause into your life, whether it's a whole day, whether it's 10 minutes, whether it's two hours, whether you get to take a week of just doing fun stuff for you, like you've got to pause because you can lose joy if you never pause. So I know like that can be very hard for us, but it is taking small steps to do it. Maybe you're like, I can't imagine taking a full rest day and you never rest throughout your day. So maybe start with 10 minutes. You know, if you're pretty good at taking those 10 minutes throughout your day, maybe like a couple times here or there, try going for a little bit longer. You know, if you have a coach, tell them, hey, like I'm struggling with this rest thing. Like I don't, I'm just like, I'm I can tell I'm tired, I can tell I'm fatigued, I can tell I'm short-tempered, I feel all these things. Um, and I need some accountability here. So having that person be accountable, that does not be a coach either. It can be a friend, it can be a partner, it can be whoever it needs to be for you. But it's okay to ask for help for that too, because you don't want to lose your joy on that. So if your body's asking for rest, listen. If your brain feels fried, slow down. You don't have to earn the pause, you just have to take it. Because the goal isn't to see how much you can handle, it's to build a life and a body that can keep showing up. So if you needed a sign to rest, this is it. Close the laptop, skip the run if you need to, take the nap. Okay. Sometimes those are things that you just have to do because doing nothing is still something, okay? And last but not least, what am I gonna say? Rest is part of the work. So if you love this episode, make sure you download it, follow the show, leave a rating or a view, share it with a friend, trail friend or not. It really somehow helps this message reach more everyday runners like you. I don't know how the logarithm works, but doing all those things helps me out and it helps this podcast out. So now go move your body, drink some water, stretch your calves, and if you're listening while running, loosen your shoulders. You're welcome. Good effort, positive attitude.