Sunday 17 May 2015

knowing when to have a break from hard training, and what to do instead

Posted by speedygeoff on Sunday, May 17, 2015 with
A word to the wise.
Have a challenging training schedule but... Study your reactions to the training from day to day and if you feel stale or suffer from any soreness, allow time for recovery. Never do speed training when your muscles are sore or you are feeling tired. Just jog easily, regardless of what is on the schedule for that day's training. You can never harm yourself by jogging and it will usually help to overcome the soreness or tiredness. Fast training can lead to injury and will certainly only make you more tired. Don't race your training, except when full efforts are called for on the schedule. Run strongly and easily in effort, always keeping something in reserve. As you feel improvement, gradually increase your training tempo, but never use that reserve.

So I am stopping my "May Challenge" as it is making me sore and tired. It turns out there are too many squats and lunges given all the other training I am doing. I will develop a revised exercise and stretching plan for the rest of May/June, taking my physio's advice into account.

Here's the thing: we have to challenge ourselves or we will never improve. But we also have limits.

So if you weary and tired and don't feel like coming to Monday training for example, still come. I will give you something lighter than the others, to help in your recovery and to let you regain your strength and motivation.