Rest before the big push, not only after. Sprinters don’t show up to the final exhausted on purpose.

Rest is usually treated as the reward for effort rather than part of it. Arriving at the hard thing already depleted means you spend the first half recovering and the second half doing worse work than you were capable of. The recovery has to happen before, or it comes out of the performance.

Look at what is coming this week that will take everything you have. Then protect the night before it: sleep, food, less noise, nothing extra agreed to. You will not feel virtuous doing it, but you will notice the difference when it counts.