Paul Laursen (00:00)
with training, there's more than one way to skin a cat. And even when it comes to the elite, elite, elite, right? And the classic example is Niels van der Poel.
he and his coach believed in doing was taking not one Paul, but two rest days every single week,
Paul Warloski (00:44)
Hello and welcome to the Athletes Compass podcast where we navigate training, fitness and health for everyday athletes. Most endurance athletes believe that complete rest days are essential for recovery and adaptation. However, elite endurance athletes, the ones winning Olympic medals, train virtually every single day. And recent research suggests that complete rest and active recovery produce identical fitness benefits.
So let's talk about this. Based on the research showing, and we'll include that in our show notes, showing that elite athletes train 300 to 600 times per year or nearly every day. Is this model appropriate for everyday endurance athletes or are there fundamental differences that require more rest days?
Paul Laursen (01:36)
the first thing that I think about is a saying in our textbook that we say all the time, and that is with training, there's more than one way to skin a cat. And even when it comes to the elite, elite, elite, right? And the classic example is ⁓ Niels van der Poel. And Niels van der Poel is the speed skater that
set the world records for 5,000 and 10,000 meters. And he then he laid out his manifesto of how he went about things. Now, what he and his coach believed in doing was taking not one Paul, but two rest days every single week, accumulating these huge miles also on the bike. But, so it certainly was high volume, but he believed in almost that complete rest and getting away from it. That, you know, that being said, we know that athletes like
Marjaana (02:24)
Thank
Paul Laursen (02:30)
Christian Blumenfeld and Gustav Eden, they train every single day just like you're talking about, Paul. So it's really, there's lots of ways to skin the cat when it comes to this. There's no right or wrong way of doing it. And I think really, for me, it comes down to what works well for you. Now, going straight back to Athletica, the cool thing about it is you can schedule a complete rest day in there.
for yourself, if that's the philosophy that you really believe in, you know yourself, I feel so much better when I have that complete rest day. And I will have athletes that I coach that have both philosophies. Some want to do that, they'd rather do like a one hour easy zone one or big long walk, walk, jog, whatever in the forest, because that makes them recover better or an easy swim, whatever.
⁓ So I don't think there's or ⁓ wrong answer to this one, Paul. I think it comes down to individual preference is my bias. MJ, over to you.
Marjaana (03:38)
This is a really good question because I just finished listening to Professor Oeving Sonbeck's interview.
We'll put the note on the show notes. ⁓ But he actually, they touched on not necessarily recovery days, but how athletes actually train. And like some of the elite, elite Norwegian endurance athletes, have different philosophies.
Paul Laursen (03:47)
Okay.
Marjaana (04:07)
somebody ⁓ can train a thousand hours a year while some like Oleinor Björndalen, who was the most winning athlete in biathlon, so skiing and shooting. And he trained relatively less than some of the other biathlon stars with like, don't know.
I can't remember exactly 600, 700 hours, which is still a lot, but what Dr. Sandback was saying that it totally depends on how you execute your sessions and how you adapt to your training. ⁓ knowing that age group athletes, tend to maybe do our easy training too hard.
Paul Warloski (04:55)
Thank
Marjaana (05:03)
⁓ If you're always trying to aim at upper zone two while you're calling it an easy day and you're always trying to max out the zone two training, maybe you need that rest day. But if you're really good at accumulating time at easier zone two or even zone one, which a lot of the elite athletes do, then ⁓
Maybe you don't need a full rest day, but my point is it depends how you do your rest of your training. Like if you're always like tanking it and trying to maximize every minute of your, if your precious training time, maybe it's a good idea to have a, have a rest day.
Paul Warloski (05:54)
And there's that element of.
to add on to what you're saying is what kind of training are you doing? For instance, today is my off day, but I teach a yoga class on Mondays. So that's my act of recovery. So it matters what you choose to do for your day off. But what actually happens in the body when you have complete rest, when you just don't do anything for a day,
versus active recovery? Are we losing adaptation opportunities during those rest days? Are we gaining something during rest days? What's the background of
Paul Laursen (06:37)
Yeah, so super good question, Paul. I think a lot of the let's let's just imagine that we are of the philosophy that, on a recovery day, whether I'm going to be active or not, if I'm going to be active, to Marjaana's point, like, if if we're
We're not doing heavy stuff. We're not continuing to drift into zone three or anything like that. We understand the premise that if a recovery day means recovery, means zone one, potential drift into zone two. So what is that versus sitting on the couch and sort of doing nothing? And ⁓ a lot of it, I think, probably comes down to this, to pull out a big word in the nervous system and the physiology, it's parasympathetic reactivation.
And there's a lot of like, basically, if you look at your heart rate variability profile, right? It's the, it's, you can raise your HRV if you do certain activities as opposed to just sitting on the couch and, you know, things like, like a sauna bath would, would potentially raise your HRV if not done excessively, right? Because you'd get that nice plasma volume response. Cold water immersion could do the same. Going for a walk could do the same out in nature.
Marjaana (07:49)
The water
Paul Laursen (07:53)
⁓ doing an easy swim, ⁓
could, you know, just super, super light mix of, mix of strokes, just at super, super low intensity. So all these various different things, you know, spin on the bike, all these kinds of things can still raise parasympathetic activity, be really light from a stress standpoint and actually be, be helpful in terms of facilitating that recovery as opposed if I'm just gonna laze on the couch.
Now there's nothing wrong with either, but it's like, what's gonna make you feel better? So for me, I too, just like you Paul, I had a huge day out yesterday in the back country. I did five hours and it was hard and it was laden with being out in the mountains, climbing thousand meters up to altitude and then skiing down through.
trees and I just got hammered with lots of neuromuscular strain. I'm super sore. I had a hard sleep last night. But I still felt like I needed to do an easy swim this morning. It was just like super easy, just 500 meters. And then doing like yoga poses, just like you were sort of saying, Paul, like lots of mobility and flexibility things, because I'm sore as. But I'd rather do that than just sit at my computer desk or sit on the couch.
That's better for me. Is it really training? I don't know. I think there's a little bit of stuff, right? Like you're always still getting that signal to make adaptations. So I think it's still better personally for me than doing absolutely nothing.
Marjaana (09:35)
I want to talk about
the intensity aspect. Maybe I'm totally wrong, but I feel like of age group , athletes, put down the easy recovery as junk zone one is too easy, why bother? You know what I mean?
Paul Laursen (10:02)
Oh yeah, for sure. Because it's anti the no pain, no gain philosophy, right? It doesn't sound very tough or hard. again, it kind of comes down to this philosophy around, what would we call it? We called it the toothpaste theory. You don't want to hit from the middle and put toothpaste on your...
Marjaana (10:09)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Paul Laursen (10:28)
on your toothbrush from the middle, you want to hit from both sides of it. And it's the same sort of thing with this. want to, when, it's like polarized training. Like you would do the hard stuff hard. I like what I did yesterday, but today I got to do the easy stuff. Very easy, like super easy. Otherwise, and I know I get a bigger, bigger bang for buck if I stay on that, stay on those, on those rails, don't fall outside of that as opposed to hard all the time. I just, yeah.
Marjaana (10:31)
And it's the same sort of thing with fish. And it's polarized training. You have the hard stuff hard. I got it yesterday, but today I got to do stuff very slippery. Otherwise, and I know I get a bigger...
Paul Laursen (10:58)
I won't, I won't be happy. I won't respond.
Marjaana (11:01)
Yeah.
But I think like a lot of people think that, okay, so we often talk about like elite athletes and then try to like translate that what they do to age groupers. But I think like a lot of the...
Misunderstanding is that when you're very fit athlete, when they do zone one, they might still be running, but when ⁓ less fit athletes do zone one, they get frustrated that they're walking. That's why then they say, no, I'm not a runner. If I can't run. ⁓
Paul Laursen (11:53)
Okay.
Marjaana (11:54)
I'm not a runner or if I don't do my training sessions running at zone one, because running at zone one is pretty hard. Like you have to be super fit to be able to actually run or jog and still keep your heart rate super low under 70 % of max heart rate or whatever how you want to define zone one. I think.
I think that there's a value in just doing run walks or that easy bike ride where your heart rate is not even at zone two. Like cyclists, when they are in the pack, their heart rates are super low when they are in the middle of the pack. So it's not always like...
Paul Laursen (12:30)
Early.
Totally.
Marjaana (12:51)
Like I feel like triathletes, especially when they're doing their zone two rides, if they are alone on a TT bike, they are pushing. Like they're always on zone two, if not zone three. Like there's very little zone one because we're like trying to maximize the time.
Paul Laursen (13:11)
Yeah, I you made some great points there, MJ. So the first one, I think the, that is important to realize is, is if you can run in zone one, that's sort of the testament of being a, a very well-trained runner. And, and because people complain, they can't do that, right? They have to walk. Well, you need to develop your aerobic base first. If that's, if that's you and that's your situation, you got to develop your aerobic base, you know, your maff training. ⁓
And as soon as the ⁓ cardiovascular system and the metabolic system get up to speed to be able to support that zone one running, not just run walking, then your performance is gonna go, shh. So yeah, it's definitely worth doing. And I understand the frustration.
Marjaana (13:41)
as soon as the cardiovascular system and the metabolic system get up to speed to be able to support that zone one.
Oh yeah, it's definitely worth doing. And I understand the frustration.
Paul Laursen (14:03)
And in a lot of it, yeah, kind of like you said, comes down to ego and identity. And then the last, the other key point is, over to Paul's area with Tour de France cyclists, right? Like they, the classic thing is here's, here's guys who are some of the fittest athletes in the world. And what do they do on their rest day? Well, they, do a three hour easy ride, you know, like who does that? Well, if
Marjaana (14:03)
And a lot of, again, kind of like you said, coming down to ego and identity. And then the last, the other thing can do know, go over the polls there and put amongst cyclists. Like the classic thing is, these guys are some of the fittest athletes in the world. And what do they do on their rest day? What do they do in three hours? He's drunk. Who does that? Y'all.
Paul Laursen (14:26)
you have, uh, let's call it a CTL of two, you know, 200 plus or whatever.
you want to continue to, you just don't want to sit on the couch. You're going to feel a whole lot better tomorrow for that context if they're out there doing what it is that they're doing and facilitating recovery that way. So yeah, there's a lot of context within this question.
Paul Warloski (14:53)
Is there a physiological value in moving? Like for you today, after a long hard day yesterday, and I did a lot this weekend too, is there a physiological value in moving or is it something where we're simply feeling better?
Paul Laursen (15:08)
Yeah.
yeah, it's a tough one Paul. You know, I know you're searching for, well, what's going on in the body? And I don't have a great answer. know it's, again, I started with parasympathetic reactivation, right? And this is when I say that, I'm talking about your heart rate variability measure, which again, you can get in, ⁓ in Athletica. But it's like that will raise your...
Marjaana (15:17)
researching for, well, what's going on in the body? And I don't have a great answer. I know it's, again, I started with parasympathetic reactivation, right? And this is when I say that I'm talking about your heart rate variability measure, which again, you can get in athletics, but it's like that will raise your
Paul Warloski (15:20)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Paul Laursen (15:40)
blood volume, will raise your, the HRV response. And if this is associated with
Marjaana (15:41)
blood volume, it will raise your HRV response, and if this is associated with
Paul Laursen (15:46)
feeling better. So yes, the movement does help. And then it's, because you know, even you can do whatever you want, go for a walk, whatever, but it's ultimately the same sort of mobility exercises that you were talking about, Paul, in your yoga exercises and stuff, right? We're meant to move. We're not meant to sit on our dofs. ⁓
Paul Warloski (15:52)
Okay.
Paul Laursen (16:10)
Like we all do too much, right? So it's like, yeah, it's super key to get out there and move the body. And this is what, but it's like to MJ's point, you don't want to move too hard. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, that's, yeah. So it's like on your recovery day, do your recovery. And then, I mean, even in the Niels van der Poel situation, I'm pretty sure the guy still moved on those days. I'm pretty sure he didn't just sit on the couch.
We can ask him maybe one day, it's like, yeah, I would imagine he would have at least done something. Cause he's got to, you you got to get up and do chores and he probably had to make all his meals for the week and all those sorts of things. Cause his other five days of the week were pretty massive.
Marjaana (16:53)
And he talked about it on one of the podcasts that he wanted to be so so and enjoy life with his friends. I'm sure like that's what he was doing, doing something, you know, with his friends.
Paul Laursen (17:05)
Totally.
100%.
Paul Warloski (17:10)
Is there a point at which, know, physiologically or mentally or whatever it might be that we should take a complete day off?
Paul Laursen (17:21)
Oh yeah. What do you think, MJ? That's more your question.
Marjaana (17:26)
you're throwing me under the bus. Well, obviously if you're feeling sick or you're just not feeling right, your HRV is tanked. ⁓ Sometimes you just need a day off.
Paul Laursen (17:30)
I am.
Yeah. Yeah, I know.
Marjaana (17:45)
And it's
okay.
Paul Laursen (17:48)
Totally. That's what I was going to say to you, right? So again, we're very fortunate with Athletica. You've got a marker that's on there. Your AI coach can alert you to it. And when your HRV seven-day rolling average rolls below your 60-day normal, your AI coach is going to speak up and tell you about it. And then, that should couple likely with how you're feeling. And if you're feeling like crap or you feel sick,
That's time, for whatever reason, your body needs a complete rest and a recovery day. And if you're sick, that could mean time in bed and lots of sleep. Remember, for all of this, sleep is just so vital. ⁓ man, I had a hard sleep last night with my big day out. It was just like, I slept hard. I couldn't keep my eyes open till...
eight 30, the light went out. I had to be up at five 30 for swim, but it was like, solid nine hours and it was a hard nine hours. it just like, I was thinking about just like, what are all the incredible recovery mechanisms that are going on while we, while we sleep after a big day, a big training load day.
And it's pretty massive, but it also makes you feel so much better the next day. You sit there and you're laying in bed and you're so sore and whatever. If those have done an Ironman or a really big race, you know what I'm talking about. And it's like, you wonder, am I ever going to feel better again? Of course, you wake up the next morning and you do. it's just like, what went on to make all those, ⁓ that recovery process happen?
is so many different things and it's pretty cool.
Marjaana (19:31)
Damn, I'm jealous of your good sleep.
Ha ha ha ha ha
Paul Laursen (19:37)
Sorry, I'm doing it.
Paul Warloski (19:40)
Is there a mental or emotional component to taking complete rest days sometimes?
Marjaana (19:47)
Yeah, for sure. Why not? Well, I mean, I know that we're talking about age group athletes, so they have enough stuff on their schedules, but I would say it's good to do something else too than, you know, we're so slammed with everything, especially if you have kids.
Paul Warloski (19:49)
What do mean?
Marjaana (20:11)
your work, your training, and we're constantly just following the schedule. just scheduling one rest day. Maybe it is what you need. Maybe it is one scheduled rest day is like it's training too. Like sometimes A type personalities, we need to follow the plan. So if you're plateaued or you're just like feeling like you're not
feeling good anymore, you can't remember how feeling good feels. Hello? Maybe the best solution is, smartest thing is to actually schedule that rest day and not just like swing it every once in a while. Like ⁓ I'll just keep training until you're in a tank. So maybe that is best prevention of keeping that HRV up is to schedule one rest day. ⁓ And then do something else.
Paul Laursen (20:44)
Hmm.
Marjaana (21:07)
remember what you used to have as a hobby before you became a parent and had other things too. So, I think it's important to do something else as well than just our passion, which is sport.
Paul Laursen (21:12)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
I agree. I think I saw a coach, an elite young runner and she is that that's the belief that she has where she needs, she's total type A, but she needs that one scheduled rest day. And she just, yeah, I think it helps keep her healthy and consistent in her training. yeah, really, I think it can be really good practice.
Paul Warloski (21:42)
Mm-hmm. ⁓
Yeah, and I think, you know, to piggyback off what Marjaana was saying is that there's that element of looking at the schedule and going, ⁓ I have a day to breathe and I have a day to get my chores done, to clean the house, to do the meal prepping, whatever it might be. I have that time. I don't need to worry about my training. So I make sure that, you know, for all of my athletes, I schedule a day off.
Marjaana (21:56)
Yeah, and I think to piggyback off what Mariano was saying is that there's not a lot of people to have this kind of a...
Paul Warloski (22:25)
they might take a walk on that day. They might do some yoga on that day, really easy yoga, not going to a hot yoga class that's really challenging, but something very simple moving. ⁓ And walks are some of the best kind of recovery that ⁓ I can ask somebody to do. Take the dog out for a nice long walk.
Paul Laursen (22:48)
Yeah, totally. I could not agree. So, and many, many know that I used to coach Andy Buescher, ⁓ who's a, world beater in the sport of Ironman. And one of the biggest, the, one of the biggest changes and most effective changes that he made was adding walks to his overall training program. Just walking around outside of it. Zone one.
training. think zone one training is so underrated. ⁓ New paper, actually I just did a podcast with the group ⁓ and the research group basically showed that zone one training was the biggest thing and the most important, zone one plus zone two, the combo in that time and duration doing zone one and two training was the biggest influence in changing
Marjaana (23:14)
think zone one training is so underrated. New paper, just catch, I just did a podcast with the group. And the research group basically showed that zone one training was the biggest thing.
the important zone one plus zone two, the combo in that time and duration doing zone one and two training was the biggest influence in changing
the ventricular mass in the heart. So the ventricle is the large muscle that pumps the blood to the rest of the body. they did this very unique study where they were actually like, they did MRI of the heart.
Paul Laursen (23:42)
the ventricular mass in your heart, right? So the ventricle is the large muscle that pumps the blood to the rest of the body. And they did this very unique study where they were actually like, they did ⁓ MRI of the heart so
they could actually see how much ⁓ muscle mass was in your heart. And then they did three months of assessment of training load.
And it wasn't the load per se, but it was the duration, the duration and the time at zone one, two, that was the biggest ⁓ correlate of having a larger, more powerful heart that we all want, right? Like that's going to relate to your VO2 max, et cetera. So, you know, even though back to MJ's point, you feel maybe like you're not doing anything.
the number of beats are accumulating and it's the number of beats that Guido, my podcast guest, was telling me is the key thing you want to think about. But you want to kind of keep that, keep the stress low and you can do that with zone one, zone two training.
Paul Warloski (24:53)
So it sounds like taking a day off is helpful mentally, emotionally. It's not something that's required, but taking a day off can be something where you're doing something active. So how should an everyday athlete structure their week if they want to train every day? What's the optimal distribution of hard, moderate, or easy sessions? I know that's probably a contextual question.
What do you think?
Marjaana (25:23)
I'm going to jump back one thing that I wanted to say, and especially I'm thinking all the moms out there. ⁓ If you take that rest day, it is a rest day. It's not the day when you go shopping. It's not the day when you go do all the chores that you've been putting off because then you're on your feet, especially if you're a runner, right? Because then you're like hours on your feet and it's no longer a rest day.
Right. ⁓ Ours are not, you know, driving from one place to another. So just wanted to get that out there, but how do you structure your week? there's so many ways, right? Like it totally depends on your context, but like I would start from looking at your key sessions and rest of your calendar. When can you sandwich in your
Paul Laursen (26:00)
.
Paul Warloski (26:06)
Right, right.
Marjaana (26:20)
your key sessions with easy days around them.
But other than that, there's thousands of possibilities.
Paul Laursen (26:29)
Yeah, I agree. Cause we see them in customer service with Athletica We see them all the time, right? You go to the individual's plan, you see maybe they're having trouble with their workout builder. So you're on that workout builder with them and so many, like I can't believe it. for me, Monday is often a rest day, right? Cause it follows the weekend and that is a common one, but I see just about everything out there. there's just, there's so many, there's thousands of different schedules that people have.
Marjaana (26:53)
Mm-hmm.
Paul Laursen (26:59)
and you could land that rest day on any given day of the week. I don't think there ⁓ is not a right or a wrong way to do it. The right way is in accordance with your context. So what works with you, but do have time for recovery. And as we've mentioned in the podcast, that could include just your easy zone one training plus all the various different means that help you recover. And it could be just a complete day off like Niels van der Poel does.
And he has two of them to do other social activities and bring health back to his soul, his energy, his life, his mind.
Marjaana (27:43)
Let's talk about some of the contacts. So we often talk about people who are doing a lot of volume, either mid volume or high volume, but
I think like we should also address the lower volume athletes. they probably typically would train very little during the week or short sessions. then, you know, Saturday, Sunday, they'll do longer sessions or several sessions. ⁓ Is there a point having one full day off if you're a very low volume athlete?
Paul Laursen (28:26)
Could be. mean, in that context, for me, you've just said that the individual is likely going to bulk a lot of volume and load into the weekend. So in that context, sounds like Monday would at least be an easier day. And whether it's completely off or it's an easy recovery swim, ⁓ that's, know, like with the, you know, the Saturday and the Sunday likely a lot of time on legs, at least in the triathlete context.
Marjaana (28:42)
Mm-hmm.
Paul Laursen (28:56)
That would be, yeah, that would be probably wise.
Marjaana (29:02)
Mm-hmm. What do you think, Yeah, that's an interesting question.
Paul Warloski (29:04)
Yeah, that's an interesting question because they're
low volume so that they don't necessarily build up all the volume that they need to rest a full rest and recovery day. So I think what Paul said is, is right on track, know, you know, just taking it easy, you know, one day a week after a volume weekend is a good idea. ⁓
Paul Laursen (29:28)
Yeah, and keep in mind, Sammy Inkenen, ⁓ Virta Health, you know, rode across the Pacific from, you know, and then won. He was the champion for age group Iron Man and held the record for a while. And his story was training 10 to 12 hours a week. And he talks on the podcast. We did the Training Science podcast.
he did that and everything was just very targeted and with quite a bit of a specific, intensity, specific to race pace on all those various different days. But his weekends certainly were, that's where he bulked up the training. And I didn't, I don't think he really mentioned too much about the, I think it was, he was still training every single day, but it would be very short, right? And it was like kind of the way that he broke up his work.
Marjaana (30:20)
Yeah. and broke up his work.
Paul Laursen (30:24)
Cause he was, I think it was the business that he was running at that time was a real estate business called Chorella. And, you know, it was, he grew up to, know, multi gazillions or whatever he sold it for at the end. it was, but yeah, like he was, he was pretty time crunched kind of,
Marjaana (30:26)
He was the business that he was running at that time. a real estate business called Torella and he grew up doing multi-gazillions or whatever he sold it for at the end. But yeah, he was pretty time-frenzed.
Paul Laursen (30:40)
kind of guy.
Paul Warloski (30:43)
Take advantage of what you've got. Yeah. So one of the things I remember when I was racing back in the 80s and 90s is that we would do recovery rides and the rationale was to get the junk out of our legs, know, get the, you know, the negative whatever out of our legs. Is that a true statement or was that just?
Paul Laursen (31:06)
No, it wasn't. That was the thinking at the time, Paul. But yeah, we've since debunked that. It's more along the lines of creating that added signal for aerobic adaptation. And we can get into the weeds, but ⁓ when your muscles contract, they create a signal to tell them to...
Paul Warloski (31:06)
things that we told ourselves.
Marjaana (31:08)
Yeah.
Paul Laursen (31:32)
to adapt and then it also comes down to the parasympathetic reactivation mentioned two other times in the podcast and then it would also come down to ultimately just that movement is like the same as your yoga session where it's just like ⁓ mobility exercise feels good and it brings something back to the whole body.
the no, there's nothing to lactates. It was usually lactate as opposed to junk, think that that were like lack, like clear the lactic acid. And that's we now know that lactate per se is is ⁓ a vital metabolite actually for the brain just like glucose, fatty acids and ketones. You you your brain especially on the neural tissue that loves lactate. It's like a it's a preferred fuel.
And this is where you can actually have, it's actually of benefit to have ⁓ some lactate around because the cells of your body love, they find it delicious and it brings you energy. So yeah, no, that's an old thinking and that's no longer what we know goes on.
Paul Warloski (32:49)
Good, that's good to know. All right. What else do we want to talk about for whether we train or take a day off or do easy work on our day off?
anything you want to add.
Marjaana (33:03)
Don't be afraid of taking a rest day.
Paul Warloski (33:07)
Yeah.
Marjaana (33:08)
I like when I've been on like my biggest weeks, I've always been super scared of taking the rest day, partly because I just want to keep it going and it feels good to move, but ⁓ I think I probably tend to overdo it. So ⁓ probably could use a full rest day sometimes.
Paul Warloski (33:37)
Mm-hmm.
Paul Laursen (33:39)
I really couldn't add too much more to that. It's just like, you know, so much of this is the mental challenge around it all, around the, just the thought for some people about taking a rest day. So get over that, realize that that rest day and recovery, it's part of training and it's actually going to bring, more benefit to your overall performance and development.
probably then you think and then yeah, it's gonna help you continue to move to the next session. Remember, it's always the next session's the most important session, so it's gonna help you get to that next important session.
Marjaana (34:20)
I have a hot tip for everybody who wants to keep their strikes going. Walking also counts.
Paul Laursen (34:26)
Yeah, it does.
It does. Go for a walk.
Paul Warloski (34:31)
And I do notice that the older I get, the more valuable these days off become. really, it's like, yeah, I need that day off. I can't do this as much as I used to. ⁓ And days off with walks and yoga are key. Otherwise my HRV starts to tank.
Marjaana (34:39)
You
Paul Laursen (34:51)
100%.
Paul Warloski (34:56)
Thank you for listening today to the Athletes Compass podcast. Take a moment now, subscribe, share, and let's keep navigating this endurance adventure together. Improve your training with the science-based training platform, Athletica, and join the conversation at the Athletica Forum. For Marjaana Rakai and Dr. Paul Laursen I'm Paul Warloski and this has been the Athletes Compass podcast. Thank you so much for listening.