Reflections on Rest Days

Do you get restless when you take a rest day? When I was training for this year's Bermuda Half Marathon, my third in as many years, I couldn't wait for rest days but now that I'm training just for the health of it, and am recovering well from my training, I'm going to need to work on relaxing on rest days.

I was planning to go the gym yesterday to wrap up my 5 days of training but the plumber was coming to the house and there were logistical issues with who needed the car and when. Tom and Ruth Anne's iPhones went through an upgrade on Tuesday night so the alarms didn't go off. We decided to declare a rest day for Team McManus.

It feels incredibly strange for me to have the flexibility in training just for the health of it. Training for strength, health and wellness is a joy!



I know how crucial rest days are for physical and psychological reasons. There's an itch and a twitch to taking a rest day when it wasn't scheduled. Thursdays and Fridays have been my rest days for 3 years now.

It's good to shake things up and to listen to what my body needs and how the Universe seems to orchestrate these things.

For the first time in 11 years, since the diagnosis of Post-Polio Syndrome, I feel comfortable in my body. Oh sure my muscles are sore as we would expect them to be and I am resolving hip/back/groin pain, but I am not striving to get anywhere in my journey to health and wellness in the wake of childhood paralytic polio and trauma. I am not experiencing a relapse of symptoms nor am I rehabbing an injury.

This begs the question then....why am I so keenly disciplined in my training regimen when I am "only" training just for the health of it? Why do I struggle with taking rest days.

In May of 2007, I was discharged from outpatient physical therapy at Spaulding Rehab. I was blessed to find an earth angel of a physical therapist in Allison Lamarre-Poole. She held the belief for me that I would and could get stronger. She did not treat me as a polio survivor following the admonitions of "if you use it you will lose it." She worked with me to bring relief and to help me take those first very tentative steps on my healing journey through exercise. As we were saying goodbye she said to me, "You continue to do the work okay? You don't ever want to go back to where you were do you?"

To that I say a resounding no - never.

I will embrace and enjoy my days of exercise and movement and learn how to relax on my rest days knowing how good they are for me mind, body and soul now trusting in the process of healing and transformation.

To your health and wellness
From my heart to yours,
Mary

Proud to be a part of Friends of Blue Diamond Athletic Displays, Inc. Be sure to visit us at Booth 758 during Boston Marathon Weekend.

Be sure to visit my website by following this link.

My books are available on Amazon.

Feel the Heal: An Anthology of Poems to Heal Your Life


Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing Hope and Possibility that chronicles the first 7 years of my healing journey:


And my latest and greatest book - Going the Distance: The Power of Endurance (With a Foreword by Jacqueline Hansen):