Rest and Recovery
By Rich Strauss

It's that time of year for us folks on the left coast: the final big push before Wildflower in early May. The weather gets even better, the sun comes up earlier and earlier, the training gets longer and more intense. So I'm going to ask you a question:

Does training make you faster?

If you answered "yes," you are wrong. Training only creates the CONDITION for improvement. The actual gains occur when you allow your body to rest and recover, to emerge at the other end stronger and faster.

The Overload Principle

Why, exactly, do we train? Your body is a very adaptable machine. When you introduce a stress, it adapts and becomes better able to handle the stress. To explain how it works, let's introduce two numbers, I made them up:

1. Fitness, 1-10. This is just a measure of how "fit" you are, as determined by how much volume, intensity, etc, that you can handle. 1 is a couch potato, 10 is Lance.
   
   
2. Fatigue, 1-5. This is a measure of how "tired" you are, which is also a measure of the cumulative training stress on your body. 1 is fresh as a daisy, 5 is beat like a dog.

At the start of the training period, your fitness is an 8, meaning your body can perform "work" equal to 8. Your fatigue is a 1, you're ready to go. During the week, we train at a Fitness level of 8.5. We "overload" your body by introducing stress greater than what it is able to handle. As a result, cumulative training stress builds up, increasing your Fatigue from 1 to 4.

So, we have created two conditions:

1. We have introduced a training stress (8.5) that is greater than what your body is currently able to handle (8).
   
   
2. We have increased your Fatigue from 1 to 4.

Like I said above, your body is a remarkably adaptive machine, but it must be given time to do it's thing. You do this by resting, thus allowing your Fatigue to decrease from 4 to 1. During this rest period, your body adapts to the training "overload" and emerges with a Fitness Level greater than the original 8, let's call it 8.2. Congratulations, you are now stronger and faster.

But what happens if you don't rest?

Remember that the training process is built around breaking your body down and allowing it to recover to a higher state of fitness. If you don't allow it to rest, you just keep breaking it down more and more. Your performance will begin to spiral downward.

In summary:

1. Many people associate fatigue with increased fitness. Fatigue becomes the objective of training, not faster performances.
   
2. Fatigue is an opportunity that you create by training. You capitalize on this opportunity by resting and allowing your body to recover.
   
3. So the actual workout is only half of the training session. You complete the training session when you allow your body to rest and recover before the next hard training session.

Good Luck!

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