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110. Do You Need to Take Rest Days to Get Your Period Back? · Eat More Carbs | A Period Recovery Podcast

• 0:00
  Hey girlies, just a quick reminder before we dive into
• 0:02
  today's episode. The information shared on this
• 0:04
  podcast is intended to be general sports nutrition advice
• 0:07
  and education related to period recovery for female athletes.
• 0:10
  This is not specific to anyone individual and it may or may not
• 0:13
  apply to your situation. If you are looking for
• 0:15
  personalized guidance, be sure to apply to our RBSN Period
• 0:18
  recovery nutrition coaching program.
• 0:20
  Our four month period recovery program is designed to help you
• 0:22
  sustainably get your period back and keep it.
• 0:24
  You can apply now to get started in our program, and we'll leave
• 0:27
  the link for the program below if you're not quite ready for
• 0:29
  that one-on-one approach. That's exactly why we created
• 0:31
  the Period Recovery Guide. It's designed to support the
• 0:33
  girlies working on period recovery, specifically if you've
• 0:36
  lost it due to hypothalamic amenorrhea.
• 0:38
  The full guide is coming soon, but you can download a free
• 0:40
  chapter right now to start your recovery journey.
• 0:42
  This is the Eat more Carbs podcast.
• 0:49
  Hello and welcome back. This is the Eat More Carbs
• 0:51
  podcast. It's Jenna here with Riley.
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  We are both dietitians and we talk every Thursday about sports
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  nutrition for the girlies. Today we're going to be talking
• 0:59
  all about rest days, the importance of rest days,
• 1:01
  especially if you have HA, and we will kind of talk all about
• 1:04
  that. We're also going to do our high
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  and low. So sharing just a little bit
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  about like our week, the good and maybe the part we wish it
• 1:10
  gone a little bit differently. And then lastly, we're going to
• 1:12
  talk about how we utilize a rest day.
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  So instead of providing our training update, we're both in
• 1:17
  our running era. We're running a lot right now.
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  We're just going to share about how like we personally use rest
• 1:22
  days and how we make that work for like our training, hey.
• 1:25
  I can't wait. We're so excited to chat with
• 1:27
  y'all today. I cannot wait to talk about rest
• 1:30
  days or recovery days. That's what we like to call
• 1:32
  them, an RBSN. Before we get into all of that
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  good stuff, Riley, what's your high and low?
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  Update me, I'm going to. Start off with my low.
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  Recently at the beginning of this month, we took a family
• 1:42
  vacation to Arizona. Wish I got to see Jenna.
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  Yay. That's not my low.
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  That's not my low. But it was our first time
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  traveling with Char. So first I'm going on a plane
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  first time really kind of like staying anywhere besides like my
• 1:53
  parents or my in laws for an extended period of time and
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  charted really good for I would say 90% of the trip.
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  On the way there on the plane, she was really good.
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  She did pretty good on the trip. She was like definitely a little
• 2:06
  shy. She's definitely a mama's girl.
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  And she did enjoy herself. Unfortunately though, on the way
• 2:12
  back, I would say about the last 20 to 30 minutes on the plane, I
• 2:17
  was the person with a crying baby.
• 2:18
  She was not having it. I thought we got away with it
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  and I just felt so bad because I don't think she's cried that
• 2:24
  hard since. Like she literally came out of
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  the womb. I was the person with a crying
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  baby on the plane. So everybody who was on the
• 2:30
  plane with me from Phoenix to Charlotte the beginning of
• 2:33
  April, I am sorry because that was Char, poor girl.
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  Was not having it. At the end of the trip, she was
• 2:38
  ready to be home. She was, I think she's like a
• 2:40
  homebody definitely. And I think she just like
• 2:42
  couldn't get comfortable. She just was like, I'm over
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  this. Let me off this plane.
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  Like I want to be home. I want to be with my toys.
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  I want to be a my bed. I'm over this.
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  So it was a little bit of a struggle, unfortunately.
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  And you guys are really good about having a routine with her,
• 2:56
  like she's very used to when things happen and what's
• 2:59
  happening and then to be kind of taken out of that routine.
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  I thought she did so good the day that I came up and visited
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  y'all as far as like how she did, like she's such a great
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  baby, but I'm sure that it was like total like system shock for
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  her to be in such a different place, to be in a different time
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  zone and all of that. So makes sense as to why the end
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  of it she was just like mom, I'm done.
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  I'm done. Yeah.
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  And we're also kind of transitioning from like 2 naps
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  to one nap. So we're like in the middle of
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  this like transition. We were on this plane, we had a
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  three hour time change. We just had daylight savings.
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  So there was a lot of things that were not in our favor, but
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  we did make it through. Everybody's still in one piece
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  and we are home and we have been home from a couple of weeks.
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  So she's back on schedule. She's doing much better.
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  But I just, I felt bad because we were that person on the
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  plane. My high kind of also has to do
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  with Char. So Charlie goes to a nanny share
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  during the day so that I can work at RBSN, and she's with one
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  other girl in her little nanny share.
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  So she goes over to somebody's houses and plays a couple hours
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  every single day. The other girl in the nanny
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  share has an older sister who is about 3.
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  After our trip to Arizona, I haven't seen the family in two
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  weeks. We also had COVID, so Char's not
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  been over there for a little bit.
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  The little girl who's three, ran to the front door this morning
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  when I dropped off Char because this is the first time we've
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  seen them in a little bit. And she had cut her hair and she
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  was so excited because she cut her hair to look like mine hair.
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  She's like, that was Riley. I cut my hair to be like, cute.
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  That is so cute. I know.
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  I was like, I am like so touched right now.
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  That is so sweet 'cause she used to have like longer hair and we
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  have the same colour hair. She's like, I cut my hair to be
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  like you and I was like, that is so cute.
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  I'm gonna start crying right now.
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  Oh my gosh, I could cry. That is so sweet.
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  I know I was like oh OK well that's that's amazing.
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  I hope you don't regret your decision. 3 year old but.
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  I'm honoured. I love that she was so excited
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  to show you. I only see her like a little bit
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  because like sometimes she's there with Char, she'll be there
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  when I'm dropping off Char and stuff.
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  So I just thought that was just made my day so I had to share.
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  Oh, you're the cool mom. I don't know about that.
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  Yeah. But I thought that was really
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  cute. How about you?
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  How's everything going over there in Arizona?
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  I'm gonna share my high 1st and then my low because my low is
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  like a kind of thing that only happens to me.
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  I feel like, and I feel like everybody needs to hear about
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  this and have a good laugh because I think it's just so
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  funny now. But in the moment I was freaking
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  out. So I'm really excited to share
• 5:26
  with all of you the events that happened a couple of days ago.
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  First, my high definitely is that I got to see you guys.
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  I got to meet your daughter and just be around you again.
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  I know we had like this packed after we graduated from the
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  internship that we would see each other once a year.
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  And due to COVID and life changes and moving across the
• 5:42
  country, we haven't been as good with that that we hoped we would
• 5:45
  be. I think we've seen each other
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  maybe 3 or 4 times is what we kind of figured out when we were
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  together since we graduated, which definitely isn't every
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  year, but we're doing our very best.
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  And so it was just good to just see you and meet Charlie and
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  Robbie's family too, of course. But that's my high for sure,
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  even though it did happen a little while ago since we're
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  talking about it today. That's my high and then my low.
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  I edit the podcast in this room, I do it on a computer monitor
• 6:08
  and I leave my cell phone and my laptop in the kitchen because I
• 6:12
  don't want any distractions when I'm editing the podcast.
• 6:14
  For me, it's like deep work. It needs to be something that I
• 6:17
  do without any type of distraction.
• 6:19
  I need to be like completely separated from like interacting
• 6:21
  with clients. Like I blocked time on my
• 6:23
  schedule to make sure that this gets done.
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  It's super important for RBSN to get the podcast out.
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  So the other day when I was editing a podcast episode, left
• 6:31
  everything out in the other room and all of a sudden I look at
• 6:34
  the clock and I'm like, Oh my goodness, it's 11:40 and my dog
• 6:36
  has not been outside in a couple of hours.
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  And I was like, I need to go let him out.
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  So I do what I normally do, which is I walk into the kitchen
• 6:43
  area, which is usually where my dog is just hanging out.
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  And I'm like, George, do you want to go outside?
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  At that point in time, I noticed that my family group message
• 6:51
  starts blowing up because my sister has some exciting news
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  that she wants to share with our family.
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  So I'm like, OK, before I take my dog out, I will go say
• 6:57
  congratulations to my sister and then take my dog outside.
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  I pick up my phone and my phone has sent to a person in my
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  contact text named George. Do you want to go outside?
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  I wish I was making this up because the amount of panic that
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  set into my system when I see that the top text thread in my
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  phone isn't my family group message.
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  It's just somebody named George. I'm not going to share the last
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  name on the podcast to protect this individual, but immediately
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  I'm going through my internal Rolodex of like, who is George?
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  Thankfully, technology updates have allowed us to just carry
• 7:35
  are like old contacts forward throughout the years.
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  So I have contacts in my phone from the beginning of time.
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  Like I have no idea in this moment who George is.
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  I'm like, is this someone I like went on a date with?
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  Is this someone I was in a group project with?
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  Like I have no idea. I'm racking my brain.
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  I quickly go into the message. Thank goodness it's an iPhone.
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  So I unsend the message. So at least hopefully hasn't
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  seen it kind of a thing. But I'm still like standing
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  there. I'm like, how does this how how
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  did this happen? Like, I don't have my phone, I
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  don't have my computer. I just walked into the room and
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  asked my dog if he wanted to go outside.
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  So I'm freaking out because I'm like, Oh my gosh, like who am I
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  communicating with? And even if you delete a text
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  message or unsend a message on an iPhone, the text thread still
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  shows up at the top. So George is still going to see
• 8:23
  that he has a text message from Jenna that says, do you want to
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  go outside? And like, what an awkward thing
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  someone to get a text message that says that, like that is so
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  uncomfortable. So anyway, I'm like how did this
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  happen in the 1st place? My best guess is that somehow
• 8:39
  Siri was activated on my watch but I still have like the Siri
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  part that's activated on my watch that makes you have to say
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  like send it. That prompt has to be given.
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  So I have no idea how somehow that happened.
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  I never said send a text message to send it.
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  Nothing. The only words out of my mouth
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  like were do you want to go outside?
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  I call one of my friends because I'm freaking out and I'm like I
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  don't know who this person is. She of course is laughing at me
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  because it is hilarious. I'm sitting there and I'm, I got
• 9:05
  to Google this person, like I have to Google this name to try
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  to figure it out. And I'm not the best with
• 9:10
  remembering names. That's just not something that
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  I'm really, really good at. When I was in college, I was
• 9:15
  employed by a swim team that was owned by a husband and wife.
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  I primarily worked with the wife.
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  She was the one that was kind of like business facing and all
• 9:23
  that sort of stuff. But I still had her husband's
• 9:26
  phone number saved in my phone just in case I needed something
• 9:29
  from like my W2 didn't come through or my paycheck didn't
• 9:32
  come through or something like that.
• 9:34
  And his name is George, and I sent that to my employer from
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  when I was in college. That's my love.
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  I was wondering because George is like, maybe the generation, a
• 9:44
  common name. Like there's not really a lot of
• 9:46
  people who are our age with the name George.
• 9:49
  So I was like, is it somebody who was older?
• 9:51
  That's so funny. I do feel like we all have,
• 9:54
  like, a story like that's happened to everybody one time.
• 9:58
  Yeah. It's just the panic that sets in
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  like the freeze that you feel from like the top of your body
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  all the way down when you're like, how did this happen?
• 10:06
  And who is this person? And then on top of that, I'm
• 10:08
  like, like, did that cause complications for him where he's
• 10:10
  like, hey, honey, I know this came across my text messages,
• 10:13
  but like, I'm not going out and meeting someone in a parking
• 10:15
  lot. You know what I mean?
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  Like how uncomfortable. So I was like, what are things
• 10:19
  you? Have like like you and Nolan
• 10:20
  have like your account on the cabin.
• 10:23
  She's like said that she's like, that's weird.
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  So my biggest hope is that maybe like he didn't have my phone
• 10:29
  number saved because like, why would he?
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  And that maybe it just showed up as like an area code from the
• 10:34
  area. And he was like, oh, this is
• 10:35
  spam. Like this is, you know, we get a
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  lot of those spam text messages and stuff like that.
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  So I never heard back or anything like that.
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  But Oh my gosh, what a level of just pure panic happened for me
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  that. Happened to me like a couple of
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  months ago. I was running and it was like
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  53545 in the morning. And I said like, hey Siri, like
• 10:54
  she's gonna go off now. But I said like hey Siri, like
• 10:56
  skip this song and then it goes calling Bob Beatty.
• 10:59
  And like that's my father-in-law at 5:45 in the morning.
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  And I'm like, Oh my God, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
• 11:04
  Like. Bob is gonna think that there's
• 11:07
  an emergency because I'm calling this early in the morning.
• 11:09
  Yeah, I'm. Like how did you get that from
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  that? Like how did you get that?
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  Like literally the worst feeling.
• 11:13
  Like, I know exactly what you're saying, but it's, it's, I feel
• 11:16
  like it's happened to all of us. So I had to share that it's
• 11:18
  definitely my love. Needless to say, Siri has been
• 11:20
  disabled on every single device that I own because I am just too
• 11:24
  nervous to have it on right now. So funny, I want to do that to
• 11:28
  you, but then my problem is that I can't prompt it if I'm running
• 11:30
  if it's turned off. It's the risk that we take when
• 11:33
  we have Siri on, I guess. Yeah, first world of problems,
• 11:36
  right? 100% so I'll keep you all
• 11:38
  updated if that happens to me again or if George ever reaches
• 11:40
  back out and says no. I do not want to go.
• 11:44
  So anyway, today we're actually talking about the importance of
• 11:48
  rest days and recovery days. Riley, First off, can you kind
• 11:51
  of define what that actually means?
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  Because I think for a lot of us, we think we're taking a recovery
• 11:56
  day or we think we're incorporating rest days in our
• 11:59
  routine. Why is that important is another
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  big thing that we're going to want to dive into.
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  But like what is a rest day? What is a recovery?
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  I like to think of a rest or recovery day is a non training
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  day, so a day that we do not train.
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  Why are they important for HA or period?
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  Recovery, lots of reasons and I think too that they're not just
• 12:16
  important for athletes who have HA, they're important for
• 12:19
  athletes who don't have HA. And a lot of the stuff that we
• 12:22
  talked about on this podcast is just like basic, you know,
• 12:25
  nutrition recommendations. Like it's all important for
• 12:28
  fueling your body properly, for maximizing performance, for
• 12:30
  optimizing your health. So it's not just important for
• 12:33
  HA, but I would say recovery days are essential for all types
• 12:37
  of athletes. No matter what sport you're in,
• 12:39
  you need a recovery day. A true rest day is a day that
• 12:43
  has no training, and this is going to really allow your body
• 12:47
  to relax, recover and almost reset to help you get back into
• 12:52
  training. How can rest and recovery days
• 12:54
  impact your performance as an athlete?
• 12:56
  It's super important to incorporate them to improve your
• 12:59
  performance because like you said, it allows that rest
• 13:01
  recovery, repair. It also helps rebuild anything
• 13:04
  that we have like exacerbated like during training.
• 13:06
  So if you have run through all of your stores, if you need to
• 13:09
  kind of build up again, if you need to repair anything, all of
• 13:12
  those things can be done more efficiently when you aren't
• 13:14
  training. So allowing your body that time
• 13:16
  to repair, to recover, to then hopefully come back stronger, to
• 13:20
  hopefully coming back feeling more energized so you can have
• 13:23
  like a better performance outcome is the goal when we're
• 13:25
  thinking about like, why is that important from like a
• 13:27
  performance perspective when it comes to training and recovery
• 13:30
  days? Definitely.
• 13:31
  I think a lot of the time that we think that once our training
• 13:35
  has ended, like that's when our performance on our recovery and
• 13:39
  all of that has almost ended. So we're not thinking really
• 13:42
  what's happening outside of training.
• 13:44
  We're just really focused on like what's happening in our
• 13:46
  sport. But when we look at like the
• 13:48
  body's processes, you know, even specifically glycogen, like
• 13:52
  glycogen resynthesis completely to like 100% is going to take up
• 13:55
  to 48 hours. So if we're constantly running
• 13:58
  through our glycogen and never giving it time to reset, we're
• 14:01
  never going to like maximize those stores that are available
• 14:05
  within the muscle. Is that why we see a lot of
• 14:07
  people like leading into a big race that they will take like a
• 14:10
  big taper from training? Exactly.
• 14:13
  We have really conditioned ourselves in our society to
• 14:16
  think about our body on like a 24 hour cycle.
• 14:19
  We talk a lot about this in our period recovery program and we
• 14:21
  are talking a lot about this in our period recovery guide that's
• 14:23
  coming soon. Your body yes is on a 24 hour
• 14:26
  cycle, but it doesn't reset at midnight.
• 14:29
  It's more about like the training load, what's happening
• 14:32
  over an extended period of time. And I think when we look at
• 14:35
  calorie recommendations, protein recommendations, they're all
• 14:37
  like grams or calories per day. So we assume that like
• 14:41
  everything's happening in a very singular way, but all of our
• 14:45
  days are connected, all of our hours and all of our minutes are
• 14:47
  connected. No, I think that's so important
• 14:49
  and something that we talk about South frequently is that like
• 14:52
  you aren't a 24 hour clock, there isn't a reset button that
• 14:55
  happens at midnight. But because all of the food
• 14:58
  labels are based off of a 24 hour, a single day intake and
• 15:02
  things like that, we definitely get into this mindset that it
• 15:04
  really is like a 24 hour cycle and then we reset and everything
• 15:07
  starts like back at 0. And that's not really how it
• 15:10
  works. Like there are constantly things
• 15:11
  changing within the body that, you know, we're using one
• 15:13
  substrate more than the other. Like things are always happening
• 15:16
  like throughout time. And I think that that's kind of
• 15:18
  a hard thing to kind of think about, especially when you're
• 15:20
  thinking about like training. Because so many of us believe
• 15:23
  that like increasing training and constantly striving for more
• 15:26
  training and pushing ourselves is really what is going to help
• 15:28
  like increase performance. And it's really what's going to
• 15:30
  help like take us to the next level.
• 15:31
  But in reality, like that component of rest and
• 15:34
  incorporating recovery is so, so important to allow your body to
• 15:37
  have like a moment to recover so that way you can come back and
• 15:40
  like train harder the next time. Definitely.
• 15:42
  And when we look at HA and we look at period recovery
• 15:44
  specifically, recovery days are so important because it can be
• 15:49
  one of the crucial ways to help get you into a positive energy
• 15:52
  balance just like we were talking about.
• 15:54
  Again, our body is not like resetting after 24 hours.
• 15:57
  A lot of the times with period recovery, we're so focused on
• 16:00
  getting like 2800 calories a day, 2500 calories a day.
• 16:04
  But you, you are changing every single day and some days 2800
• 16:08
  calories might put you into a positive energy balance and some
• 16:11
  days it's not going to. Especially with all the athletes
• 16:14
  that we work with, it's almost really hard, if not impossible
• 16:18
  to be in a positive energy balance every single day.
• 16:20
  If you run a marathon, if you're cycling for 6 to 8 hours, it's
• 16:23
  going to be really hard for you to be in a positive energy
• 16:26
  balance on those days. But that means you have to get
• 16:29
  into a positive energy balance on other days.
• 16:31
  And when you don't have a big block of training or competition
• 16:34
  on a recovery day, this is a wonderful opportunity to get in
• 16:38
  to a positive energy balance. So important, especially when
• 16:41
  we're thinking about that aspect of period recovery, but also
• 16:44
  when we think about like just training.
• 16:46
  I feel like in general, because if you constantly are in a low
• 16:50
  portion of energy availability or you're constantly training
• 16:52
  and not fueling yourself properly, that leads to some of
• 16:55
  the complications that we talk about really frequently on this
• 16:57
  podcast, like low energy availability, which we can see
• 17:00
  also sorts of other like complications that can come
• 17:02
  along with that. So always remembering that no
• 17:04
  matter where you are, if you have a period, if you don't have
• 17:06
  a period, still maintaining that positive energy balance is
• 17:09
  important for both athletes for sure.
• 17:11
  Rest days are some of the most challenging days for athletes.
• 17:14
  Many of you might be listening to this episode and you want to
• 17:18
  start implementing rest and recovery days, but you might be
• 17:21
  scared. I totally get it.
• 17:23
  I once really struggled with adding in rest and recovery
• 17:26
  days. I felt like they were going to
• 17:28
  slow me down, prevent my progress, and I understand how
• 17:31
  challenging it can be to start implementing them.
• 17:33
  Jenna, if somebody is in this situation right now and is in
• 17:37
  this place, what recommendations do you have for them to start
• 17:40
  implementing some rest days first?
• 17:42
  Off This is such a valid concern, especially if you're
• 17:45
  someone who has been training for an extended period of time,
• 17:48
  used to training every single day of the week and not
• 17:50
  incorporating rest and recovery days.
• 17:52
  I think a big thing would be first thinking about like what
• 17:54
  your goals are. If it's improving performance,
• 17:56
  if it is getting your period back, if it is making sure that
• 17:59
  you are progressing towards some type of a goal, then you know
• 18:03
  that a rest day is extremely important and recovery is really
• 18:06
  important to helping you get to that goal.
• 18:08
  So really just kind of taking a moment to assess where you're at
• 18:11
  and what your goals are and then starting small.
• 18:13
  So if it feels more comfortable, instead of going on another 60
• 18:17
  minute run to go any 30 minute run on what is going to
• 18:20
  eventually be a true rest or recovery day.
• 18:22
  And then maybe even working that down into a walk or something
• 18:25
  like that with the end goal of creating a true recovery day,
• 18:29
  making sure that those steps feel comfortable.
• 18:32
  So that way we can slowly start to work towards that goal of
• 18:34
  making it a true recovery day. And then depending on your
• 18:37
  goals, if you need to incorporate more recovery days,
• 18:39
  maybe more than just one of those, making sure that that's
• 18:42
  done in a similar way and in a way that feels comfortable to
• 18:45
  you. Finally, the thing that I would
• 18:46
  say, it would make sure that you're bulking your recovery
• 18:49
  days or scheduling your recovery days around your highest
• 18:52
  intensity training days to allow for that recovery.
• 18:54
  Sometimes that can also help feel really good after you've
• 18:57
  maybe you know, if you're training for a marathon run your
• 18:59
  20 miles the next day you're resting or maybe you're resting
• 19:02
  the day before to make sure that you feel really good and
• 19:04
  energized for that that run. So scheduling your rest days
• 19:07
  based on your current training is also another really like
• 19:09
  valuable tool in order to start implementing those rest days
• 19:12
  into your plan. I love that.
• 19:14
  Another thing I would like to add, just because you aren't
• 19:17
  training on our rest of recovery day, it doesn't mean that you're
• 19:20
  no longer an athlete. And something that I really
• 19:23
  struggled with is really focusing only on what's
• 19:25
  happening with my sport and not necessarily prioritizing the
• 19:29
  other things to help with my athletic performance, right?
• 19:32
  Like I've shared, I really struggled with my nutrition,
• 19:34
  struggled with rest, but there's so many other parts about being
• 19:38
  an athlete and performing your best than just like the
• 19:41
  training, right? Having proper nutrition, having
• 19:44
  proper hydration, stretching, mobility, strength, and doing
• 19:48
  some of these things on your recovery day to help you perform
• 19:52
  your best on your training days is going to just really overall
• 19:56
  help with your performance. When we think about a true
• 19:58
  recovery day, how many days are you supposed to take for rest or
• 20:02
  recovery? At least one, you should have a
• 20:04
  true rest day at least once a week.
• 20:07
  We often recommend two rest days or maybe one true recovery day
• 20:12
  and then one like recovery day where maybe you're doing some
• 20:15
  stretching or some rehab, a less than 30 minute walk, some type
• 20:19
  of very light movement. But I would say one day at least
• 20:23
  as pure recovery and then the other one is a light recovery
• 20:27
  day. And the light recovery day does
• 20:29
  not mean that you're taking a seven mile walk with your dog or
• 20:32
  that you're doing a light intensity bike ride for 10 miles
• 20:36
  or something like that. Just because it doesn't feel
• 20:38
  like high exertion to you doesn't mean that it doesn't
• 20:41
  require a lot of energies. And requiring that energy isn't
• 20:44
  going to change simply because it doesn't feel like the highest
• 20:47
  exertion level that you have capability wise.
• 20:50
  Yes, this is my favorite. I just did a spin class because
• 20:52
  it was my recovery day. A spin class is not recovery.
• 20:56
  That is a high intensity workout, Yeah.
• 20:58
  When it comes to training that you have right now, you are
• 21:01
  working towards running. The New York City Marathon
• 21:05
  talked about how exciting that is and what in a massive and
• 21:08
  major like milestone, I guess in your running career this will be
• 21:11
  as far as like your first world major, How are you incorporating
• 21:15
  recovery days in your training leading into that race, even
• 21:19
  though it's not for several months?
• 21:21
  So I have maxed my weekly runs to four days per week.
• 21:26
  I think that is something that is really important to me and it
• 21:30
  makes me feel really good. So I have four run days per
• 21:33
  week. I will not go higher than that
• 21:35
  because IA big goal of mine in 2025 is like not to get hurt.
• 21:40
  A big mistake I made in the past is running too many miles and
• 21:43
  running too many days and neglecting a lot of the other
• 21:46
  things like I shared that are happening outside of running.
• 21:49
  So my goal is to run 4 times per week and I'll have two strength
• 21:54
  days. One of those days will be
• 21:57
  separate from running and then depending on how the other
• 22:00
  strength and how that load is, I might pair a run with a strength
• 22:03
  day because I do you actually really like having two recovery
• 22:07
  days? I know sometimes it can be hard,
• 22:09
  especially trying to incorporate the strength training.
• 22:11
  So it just really depends week to week.
• 22:12
  But something that I really do enjoy, and I never thought I
• 22:15
  would say this, is having two like recovery days.
• 22:19
  Oh Riley, I love this. I know I would like 2017 Riley
• 22:24
  would have never taken 2 recovery days like in a month
• 22:28
  and now she's taking them in a week.
• 22:29
  But it's been actually so eye opening because I've been
• 22:32
  running so much faster and I feel so much stronger, like I've
• 22:35
  not been having a lot of my nagging pain in like my knee and
• 22:38
  stuff because I'm taking and prioritizing rest more.
• 22:42
  I love that. I think that that's such a big
• 22:44
  realization is when you are training, injury prevention is
• 22:46
  such a big part of that. And then you start to
• 22:48
  incorporate more rest days and all of a sudden you're like,
• 22:50
  wow, this workout doesn't feel like I'm starting off and I'm
• 22:53
  already 6 miles deep. It feels like I'm starting off
• 22:56
  on fresh legs. It feels like my lungs are good.
• 22:58
  And that is such a great feeling to start a run versus feeling
• 23:01
  like you're starting already bogged down, which is like very
• 23:04
  common when you start to reach those extremely high mileage
• 23:07
  weeks and you have like a big running goal at the end of it.
• 23:10
  So I absolutely love that. I think the injury prevention
• 23:13
  piece is key because if you take an extra recovery day, you may
• 23:18
  be missing out on like four or five runs over the course of two
• 23:22
  months. But if you're injured and you
• 23:24
  have to take two or three weeks off, that's twelve runs, yeah.
• 23:27
  I think rest and recovery is also a big one from the
• 23:30
  perspective of like when you start to feel those aches and
• 23:32
  pains. Because like we've talked about
• 23:34
  before, if you start to feel uncomfortable or if you start to
• 23:37
  feel like something might be heading towards an injury,
• 23:40
  taking a couple of rest days in a row before you start to train
• 23:43
  again is super important. Because just like Riley
• 23:46
  mentioned, taking 5 or 6 rest days in a row that then make
• 23:50
  sure that you aren't becoming injured because you keep trying
• 23:52
  to run on something that's inflamed or run on something
• 23:55
  that's not feeling comfortable is a way better approach than
• 23:57
  not being able to run the race at all because you are injured.
• 24:00
  What about you? How are you approaching your
• 24:02
  rest and recovery days? I think that this is something
• 24:04
  that has changed for me a lot during this marathon training
• 24:07
  than my previous marathon training because previously I
• 24:10
  would put my rest day before my long run day and then I would
• 24:13
  still continue to train the day after.
• 24:15
  And that's just what I felt was good at the time.
• 24:18
  This time I've switched that and I've started to do a short or
• 24:21
  speed shakeout run the day before my long run and then
• 24:25
  taking a true recovery day the day after my long run.
• 24:28
  And that just helps my body feel so much better because I'm not
• 24:31
  asking it to like continue to work at such a high intensity
• 24:35
  the day after. I feel like that works just
• 24:37
  better for me. And then I am really listening
• 24:39
  to my body. And if there's a day that I wake
• 24:41
  up and I'm like, it's just not feeling like something I should
• 24:43
  do today, I'm resting. Even though if it wasn't like a
• 24:45
  scheduled rest day for me, incorporating that as it feels
• 24:49
  good and as it feels appropriate versus feeling like I have to
• 24:52
  stick to the schedule so strictly that I'm just like way
• 24:56
  more fluid and way more flexible with it than I was before, which
• 24:59
  that was definitely a big adjustment for me.
• 25:01
  But it's more about like listening to what my body needs.
• 25:03
  And again, like the end goal for for me is to maintain like my
• 25:06
  health so that way I can run because even if I don't end up
• 25:09
  PR ING in this race, I want to run this race.
• 25:11
  Like that means more to me than like a PR.
• 25:14
  And so like not every race am I going to PR.
• 25:16
  Like that's just the truth of the matter.
• 25:17
  I'm not going to PR every race, but I want to be healthy and I
• 25:19
  want to run every race and I want to try to PR every race.
• 25:22
  So that's a bigger deal to me than constantly pushing myself
• 25:25
  because I feel like a day off, it's going to impact my PR
• 25:28
  ability. I was talking to one of our
• 25:29
  clients in our period recovery program exactly about this
• 25:32
  topic. And we were joking because what
• 25:35
  this athlete mentality, like we want to PR everything that we're
• 25:38
  doing. And we were joking that we
• 25:40
  should make shirts that say like, this isn't a PR because
• 25:43
  like, you can't PR everything that you're doing even though we
• 25:46
  really want. To yes, 100%.
• 25:48
  And that's such a hard thing to accept because I think we feel a
• 25:51
  lot of times if we don't PR that we failed, but it's not a
• 25:54
  failure. I think you've mentioned this on
• 25:56
  a previous podcast that there are no failures.
• 25:58
  There are just like learning experiences and I love that.
• 26:01
  I think that is such a valuable way to like reframe when you
• 26:04
  don't hit the goal that you have.
• 26:06
  Yes, you either win or you learn.
• 26:08
  I love that. Before we sign off for today, a
• 26:10
  lot of questions come in from athletes who are wondering how
• 26:14
  to fuel on a rest day. What are a couple of your tips
• 26:18
  or recommendations on like should fueling be adjusted?
• 26:21
  How to fuel on a rest day? Does it look similar to a
• 26:23
  training day? How do they optimize their
• 26:26
  fueling on a rest day? Oh my gosh, this is the answer
• 26:29
  that we love but hate to give and that's it.
• 26:31
  Depends. It's super important to fuel
• 26:34
  your rest day. You should intentionally be
• 26:36
  trying to consume less on a rest day because you aren't active.
• 26:40
  So fueling that rest day is so, so important.
• 26:42
  I think the things that are going to change as far as like
• 26:44
  the quantity or the portions or however we want to look at that
• 26:47
  is your training around that and also what your goals are.
• 26:50
  So that's really going to impact that too.
• 26:51
  But like overall, especially if you're working towards a
• 26:54
  positive energy balance, that shouldn't look that different
• 26:58
  from a training day. Exactly.
• 26:59
  I usually say like your fueling is probably going to look
• 27:02
  exactly the same. Your pre and post workout is
• 27:05
  probably not going to exist. So instead we're going to have
• 27:07
  to turn that into a complete snack.
• 27:09
  A big issue that I see, especially with period recovery,
• 27:12
  is people dropping off with meals, sleeping in through a
• 27:15
  meal, not thinking that they need to eat enough because it is
• 27:18
  a rest day or a non training day.
• 27:20
  But if you're not fueling your rest and you're not fueling your
• 27:23
  recovery, you're never going to get your period back and you're
• 27:25
  never going to optimize your performance.
• 27:26
  And that's just sometimes the hard truth.
• 27:29
  It is, but we're here to tell you guys all the hard truths
• 27:32
  because we want you to succeed. If you do have additional
• 27:34
  questions about rest and recovery and how you can
• 27:37
  optimize those days in order to promote your period coming back
• 27:41
  or to improve your performance, please let us know.
• 27:43
  You can always leave them in the comments of this podcast or you
• 27:45
  can find us online. You can find Riley on Instagram
• 27:48
  at Easy Sports Nutrition and you can find me at Jenna Fisher
• 27:52
  Nutrition. Thank you so much for listening
• 27:53
  to this episode of the Eat More Carbs Podcast.
• 27:55
  Please make sure you rate, subscribe, and review.
• 27:57
  And as always, remember to eat more carbs.