Must.Have.Rest.

What is wrong with the following:

Sunday, 9/27--Run 4.4 miles

Saturday, 9/26--Fight Gone Bad Workout

Friday, 9/25--Cleans and Sit ups (25 total 103# cleans and 125 total sit ups

Thursday, 9/24--Tabata Mash Up (Wall Balls, Burpees, SDHP)

Wednesday, 9/23--CF Total (Back Squat--170#, Shoulder Press--83#, Deadlift--248#, Total--501 (PR)

Tuesday, 9/22--Got Grip? (45 total 155# deadlifts, 15 total rope climbs)

Monday, 9/21--Isabel (30 63# snatches for time)

Sunday, 9/20--5k (PR at 26:12)

Saturday, 9/19--Rest

Friday, 9/18--Push Press, Pull Ups, Box Jumps (25 total 93# push press, 50 total pull ups, 75 total box jumps)

Thursday, 9/17--20 min. AMRAP-8 burpees, 12 DB Swings, 16 walking lunge

Wednesday, 9/16--10x100 meter row

Tuesday, 9/15--5-4-3-2-1 Squat cleans and L-Pull ups (103# squat cleans)

Monday, 9/14--Deadlift, Push ups (100 total 95# DL, 100 total push ups)

Sunday, 9/13--5k (26:58)

Saturday, 9/12--10 minute run

Friday, 9/11--Run, Snatch, Knees to Elbows (2x400m runs, 45 total 53# snatch and K2E)

Thursday, 9/10--Rest

Basically, I took one rest day in 17 days. That is ridiculous. I'm not sure how or why I let that happen, but I paid for it yesterday and today. My legs are absolutely wiped out. I'm lucky I didn't suffer an injury. I felt great, truly. But why is rest necessary?

From About.com:

What Happens During Recovery?

Building recovery time into any training program is important because this is the time that the body adapts to the stress of exercise and the real training effect takes place. Recovery also allows the body to replenish energy stores and repair damaged tissues. Exercise or any other physical work causes changes in the body such as muscle tissue breakdown and the depletion of energy stores (muscle glycogen) as well as fluid loss.

Recovery time allows these stores to be replenished and allows tissue repair to occur. Without sufficient time to repair and replenish, the body will continue to breakdown from intensive exercise. Symptoms of overtraining often occur from a lack of recovery time. Signs of overtraining include a feeling of general malaise, staleness, depression, decreased sports performance and increased risk of injury, among others.

Short and Long-Term Recovery

Keep in mind that there are two categories of recovery. There is immediate (short-term) recovery from a particularly intense training session or event, and there is the long-term recovery that needs to be build into a year-round training schedule. Both are important for optimal sports performance.

Short-term recovery, sometimes called active recovery occurs in the hours immediately after intense exercise. Active recovery refers to engaging in low-intensity exercise after workouts during both the cool-down phase immediately after a hard effort or workout as well as during the days following the workout. Both types of active recovery are linked to performance benefits.

Another major focus of recovery immediately following exercise has to do with replenishing energy stores and fluids lost during exercise and optimizing protein synthesis (the process of increasing the protein content of muscle cells, preventing muscle breakdown and increasing muscle size) by eating the right foods in the post-exercise meal.

This is also the time for soft tissue (muscles, tendons, ligaments) repair and the removal of chemicals that build up as a result of cell activity during exercise.

Long-term recovery techniques refer to those that are built in to a seasonal training program. Most well-designed training schedules will include recovery days and or weeks that are built into an annual training schedule. This is also the reason athletes and coaches change their training program throughout the year, add crosstraining, modify workouts types, and make changes in intensity, time, distance and all the other training variables.

Bottom line...Must.Have.Rest.