Monday, March 8, 2010

Listen to your body or push through?

In any endurance athletes training there are always times when the workout just isn't going to feel good. Hopefully you have been paying enough attention to your body to know if you should take a day off, or push through. Its a tedious balance that everyone has to face and the payoff is reaching your goals. On one hand you face potential injury or losing an important workout. Both are important to consider.

Today was a day to push through. Hitting up M2's 90 minute spin massacre really wasn't the best way to push through, but it was on the schedule for the day. Starting off with a 5 minute warmup run felt good, and then a quick lift and Vasa trainer went well, but then jumping on the cyclops trainer I knew it wasn't going to be good. The only option was to figure out what effort I could hold for the 90 minutes and stick to it for better or worse. I'm used to pushing over 340-400 watts for intervals, today hoping for 280-320 was in order. My heart rate was pushing over 160 at times, but I could hold it for the interval sets, and I kept my form. Success!

Setting your goal, even if less than what you want, is a large part of the training process. Even if it doesn't seem like progress at the time, hopefully it pays dividends in giving the mental strength to keep the pace come race day.

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