How important is rest for athletes after big races, seasons and moments?
Some athletes can shake back after a short period of time. Other athletes might need a little more time to recuperate. But regardless of the amount of time that athletes use to recover, rest and recovery are important keys to success in and out of sport.
Elite marathon runner and U.S. Cross Country champion Laura Thweatt understands the importance of rest as an elite athlete and has found the proper balance that works well for her.
“I feel like as athletes we all have that really high drive, so rest sometimes is the hardest piece of the equation for us to wrap our brains around and understand the importance of,” she said. “But throughout my career, I’ve learned time and time again how important recovery is and how important rest is, and taking that time to decompress and turn your brain off and physically recover, but to also check out and take that step back because we just live in that world all the time.
“So after a big goal race or a big season, I just think it’s so important to turn that part of ourselves off and get that balance back, and again remember that we’re so much more than a runner. It’s easy to kind of define yourself through that. So breaks for me are kind of to turn that part of my life off and enjoy all these other things that make me, me and kind of get perspective.”
She took some extra time after the Chicago Marathon to recover, and she preaches this message to the athletes that she coaches as well. She says that she has her athletes take two weeks off prior to starting back up their training.
But that’s not the only neat topic that came from this conversation with Thweatt. We answer the hard-hitting questions, such as the best Christmas album, Office characters that would make great pet names and more on this episode of a Bucket of Track Talk and Fried Chicken.
