Sunday, May 18, 2008

Feeling Good About Recovery

Today, while lifeguarding at the pool (because when no one else can guard, guess what the Aquatics Director gets to do), I was working on a forthcoming blog post about overtraining/under-recovering. I was reading a journal article that reviewed the current research on the topic of recovery, which prompted me to think about the unique situation of triathletes when it comes to recovery. Then one of the other lifeguards (my pacer from Friday night, actually) was generous enough to relieve me early (at 5:00 instead of 8:00), so I headed home for a 6-mile tempo run.

Which sucked.

I didn't want to do it. My legs were sore. I was thirsty and hungry. And all I really wanted was a nap.

Ironically enough, about 3/4 of the way through the first mile, I was listening to a podcast detailing the dangers of overtraining for triathletes.

And I took it as a sign. Instead of running 6 miles at tempo pace, I ran 2 miles easy. I figure that since I'm getting into the last main push of my training, and since I'm in the first week of a 3-week build phase, and since I ran my fastest-ever mile split on Friday, it might do me good to push a difficult workout back by one day.

Normally, I feel terrible about this kind of decision. Stupid and weak, insufficient, unable to complete the most basic and mundane training tasks. But today, with this decision, I feel really good; I feel like I made the right choice.

And now I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's tempo run.

2 comments:

  1. Good call on the 2 mile easy run. When I was sick a few weeks ago, I can tie it directly back to a tempo run 2 days before that should have been a lot shorter and easier, but I didn't listen to my body.

    Rest up!

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  2. Sometimes you just have to swallow your pride and take an easy day. I don't know about you, but every time I skip a workout (*i.e. right this very second*) I feel horrible about it, but my next day just kicks SO MUCH MORE ASS! Then I write down that the workout was good because I rested in my training log so that everyone (mostly me) will know that I'm not a pussy.

    And hooray for fastest miles ever!

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