There are people in my life who will tell me that I have no concept of rest. I would disagree. The truth is, I know what rest is–I may just not do as much of it as necessary.

Rest is definitely important. You can’t stress your muscles all the time. While I try to do a workout every day, it’s not the same workout every day. I don’t ride seven days a week, nor do I run or lift weights or jump rope or swim seven days a week. Instead, I do a few days of each every week, and I do things like take a running day off before and after my “long” run of the week when I’m training for a run.

Of course, depending on the level of athlete you are, rest has different meanings. On rest days in the Tour de France, cyclists go out for 100 mile bike rides!

The other way I measure rest is through my actual sleep and wake times. It’s believed that routine helps to reduce stress, and I do much better with routine than without it. So I try–make that try–to sleep by 9:30 each night and get up at 4:45 each morning. I don’t always make it. Some nights–like right now–I fail, and some mornings I can’t get up on time; on rarer occasions I get up earlier, like the 4 am I got up on Sunday to do a long ride before work.

I realize I have issues with rest, but I’m working on it. I don’t always succeed–I fail a lot–but I will continue trying to make this an important part of my workout routines.