The importance of rest.

Three weeks off. Beforehand it seemed like such a insignificant amount of time, surely I wouldn't be ready to train and race again for entire year after only three weeks? Time is a funny thing though... normally when you do little for a period of time, it passes by fast and passes by slowly when your doing a lot. This is not the case for me when I'm away from my bike. After a week, I find my myself questioning my coaches orders. The first week had felt like a month! Enjoyable as it was, and as much as I didn't want to train yet, I really just wanted to go out and ride. Andy and Dad were firm however, and I relented.

I entertained myself with  some walks in the woods with Mom and the dogs:

Setting up a pimpin sound system:

And Reading some books:

I found myself really tired all the time, even after ten and a half hours of sleep. Dad checked my height, and found I had grown nearly two inches since nationals. "See?" Dad says, "See what your body does when you give it its rest?". For a passionate cyclist, rest can be hard. We feel like we are falling behind, and when we get back on the bike to find we feel like crud, it gets hard.

Rest is improtant though. Our bodies can't keep going and going like some giant energizer bunny on a bike. While I may have regretted it a bit when I got back on the bike and winced at how soft my legs felt, after a week I am glad I have such wise people telling me to park the bike for a little bit.