Rest is undefeated.
On reluctantly embracing the sorcery of surrender.
Mantra: Rest is undefeated.
I have never been caught committing a crime, but I have often been guilty of resisting a rest. Just ask my coach how often I sneak out for spins when a rest day is on my training plan or talk to my husband after we spend a week on vacation (our honeymoon involved 40 hours of riding from Alba to Rome).
To me, trying harder almost always sounds like the right solution and, like many endurance athletes, I can easily fall into the trap of believing that more is more. A strategy that works surprisingly well… until it doesn’t.
A few weeks ago, after my body spent the better part of two weeks telling me I was getting close to the edge, resistance was no longer an option. My Oura ring showed “major signs” of strain. My mind felt cloudy and any time I wasn’t training, I felt like my body was stuck under a weighted blanket.
Still, I packed my bags for the next race, convinced that if I applied myself to recovering well I could get back to one hundred percent by the weekend. I told my coach I would get a blood test mid-drive and give it another day or two before deciding whether to race.
“What if something is really wrong with me?” I asked my dad over the phone, the panic evident in my voice.
“You will be fine. Maybe not by this weekend, but you will be fine,” he said, “Remember, rest is undefeated.”
Was he right? Yes.
Did I listen? Not exactly.
First, I did the 7 and a half hour race. And then, I finally gave in.
I came home and went into rest mode, canceling an upcoming trip and agreeing with my coach to clear my training schedule entirely until I felt like myself again.
For the first few days, I waited impatiently to bounce back. I slept more, watched an entire season of a TV show, slowly wandered around the neighborhood and didn’t so much as answer an email. But each morning I woke to my elevated resting heart rate and the anxious feeling that nothing was happening.
I thought about what my dad had said and tried to be patient.
And then, on the sixth day, I woke up and everything had changed. The fog had lifted. My body felt lighter. My mind felt settled and optimistic. I was so back.
It’s amazing how simple the solution can sometimes be and how often we exhaust every other option first. We focus on “recovery” in its most active form, using stretching, foam rolling, saunas, supplements, metrics, and routines to try to will ourselves back from the edge. Anything to speed up the process or convince ourselves that it is all within our control.
But sometimes the biggest progress happens when we let go of our need for interference, when we surrender to the process rather than try to bring more and more of it under our control.
So this week, think about where you might be resisting that obvious solution. Where stepping back, slowing down or resting might be just the thing to unlock the progress you have been so desperately seeking.
You can’t always make it happen.
Sometimes you have to let it happen.
Rest is undefeated.
Message(s): leave a little room…
“We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together gain and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all this to happen: room for grief, room for relief, for misery, for joy.”
- Pema Chodron
“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”
- Anne Lammott
Musing:
In a modern world of morning routine optimizations and productivity hacks, it often feels like the only way to become the person you want to be is to do more. Where might you benefit from doing a little less?
I appreciate that what you have written applies to all of us in a variety of ways, not just to athletes. And I love that you quoted two of my favorite writers! Anne & Pema have influenced me for many years.
I've just come off the first intentional rest week in recent memory. I find that you can't beat a good cry to decompress properly. The mind will make you rest, eventually, if it keeps being ignored. You've just got to let it happen as you say. Rest is undefeated. Absolutely. 🙌 Some mantra to employ.