Rest Is a Superpower

Week 1 of the Sub-3 Plan, The Fiji Edition

This week marked the official start of my twelve-week push toward Tokyo.
The goal is simple to say and hard to execute. Run a marathon in under three hours.

But what surprised me in this first week wasn’t the pace, the mileage, or even the structure of the plan.
It was the reminder that rest might be the most powerful training tool of all.

And it showed up in the middle of Fiji.

Starting the Plan Without Forcing It

From December 9 to 14, I launched the most specific phase of this build. This is where the training shifts from general fitness into something sharper. Marathon pace becomes familiar. Volume becomes intentional. Every run has a purpose.

Week 1 called for 70 kilometres, an 18 km long run, a speed session and a tempo session.

I hit all of it.
But not by pushing harder.

I hit it by respecting recovery.

Travel changes everything. Heat, humidity, disrupted sleep and time zones all add stress that the body does not forget. You can pretend they do, but your heart rate and energy levels will tell the truth very quickly.

So instead of forcing the plan, I adjusted it.

The long run moved from Sunday to Wednesday. Not because I was being soft, but because I was being smart. That single decision kept the rest of the week intact.

That is what rest looks like in real life.
It is not always lying down.
Sometimes it is choosing not to fight reality.

What the Body Was Teaching Me

I still ran hard this week.

There was a speed session touching 3:45 per kilometre.
There was a tempo run holding 4:05 for twenty minutes.

But everything else stayed easy. Properly easy. Around five-minute pace or slower.

That part matters.

When training volume increases, recovery is not optional. Easy runs allow the nervous system to calm down. They let muscles repair. They help regulate hormones like cortisol, which spike when life stress and training stress collide.

If every run is hard, the body never adapts.
It just survives.

The easy running is where the work settles in.

The Psychology of Rest

There is also a mental side to this.

Rest requires trust.

Trust that you are not falling behind.
Trust that slowing down now helps you go faster later.
Trust that discipline does not always look like effort.

Psychologically, this is hard for driven people. We like to feel productive. We like to feel tired. We like to feel like we earned the session.

But marathon training rewards patience more than aggression.

Every time you choose to recover instead of forcing it, you teach your brain something important. That consistency matters more than intensity. That longevity beats heroics.

That belief is what carries you through the hard middle weeks later on.

What Week 1 Really Proved

Week 1 was not about showing how fit I am.
It was about showing how sustainable this plan can be.

I managed the logistics.
I hit the key sessions.
I respected the environment.

Most importantly, I finished the week feeling capable, not cooked.

That is the goal.

Because a sub-three marathon is not built on one big week.
It is built on dozens of smart ones.

The Lesson This Week

Rest is not the absence of training.
It is part of the training.

If you skip it, the body collects interest.
If you respect it, the body compounds progress.

This week reminded me that the strongest runners are not the ones who do the most.
They are the ones who know when to stop, adjust and live to train another day.

Tip of the Week

Rest is a skill. Build it with intention. Keep easy runs easy, adjust around travel and stress, and remember that adaptation only happens when the body feels safe enough to change.