When to Say When

One of the hardest parts about training for me is knowing when to say when. I know I sound like a bad triathlete cliché (I mean seriously, no one is going to admit that they totally love having a day without a workout... especially not you non-draft, type-A weirdos) but I am not good about knowing when to take a recovery day for myself. Sure, I enjoy my scheduled recovery days, I think of them as a gift of time. I go snowboarding, play guitar, and do other things that make me Sam Holmes.

However, when I have a day of training scheduled and I am totally beat, I have a hard time seeing the big picture and letting it go. I struggle through the workouts and dig a deeper hole rather than burning a workout or two and getting back to myself. This is a bad idea on a lot of levels... generally speaking, it can make you sick, get you hurt, or at the very least give you a week of bad to mediocre workouts rather than one day without.

I can always tell when I am getting depleted. I am hungry and tired all the time (and not in a good way), I can't get to sleep at night, my resting HR is high, and I have no sex drive... sorry mom, your son is a grown man!

Today I could feel it coming on, I was hangry (hungry+angry) and sluggish during the morning swim, and I hadn't gone to sleep right away last night which is very weird for me. Also, its Key West, there are bikini-clad women everywhere (sorry, RVB), and I was barely lifting my eyes! Zane saw all this happening, and since he has the force (actually I think he is Shifu, from Kung Fu Panda) he saw my day not going well and gave me the afternoon off.

It was actually super nice. I got some studying done, ate an awesome breakfast (lobster omelette and a pancake?? Get outta here! Check out Blue Heaven if you're ever here in KW) and did some shopping... yes, I am a straight dude who enjoys a good shopping session. You know those people who say they never find clothes that fit? I'm not one of them...

Every once in a while, I recommend you take a step back and ask yourself "would a break from (insert your profession here) this afternoon benefit me more in the long run than grinding it out?" For me, today, it did. Until tomorrow, FOLLOW THE PACE RABBIT!!