Wednesday, November 13, 2013

To Train or NOT to Train...

Dave here…

One thing that I think is a HUGE factor, particularly as the season winds down to and end and a long season of training takes its toll on a body, is training when you're not feeling well.  There's a fine line between benefit and taking a turn for the worse when a slight illness arrives, and you've got to think with your head over your heart.

Today I'm sick.  It's been brewing for a few days and I'm not at all surprised it's got to this point.  Anne and I did a long ride this past Sunday, and I put in a lot of threshold work toward the end (in the 5th and 6th hours).  It felt great at the time and I'm sure I've benefited from the effort, but I didn't allow enough time for my body to actually absorb the training.  Monday I hopped back on the bike for a recovery ride, which was all well and good, but Tuesday, still not feeling up to it, I got back onto the road bike for some hard, steady-state work.  I knew from the get-go that the body wasn't feeling up for it, but I pushed on anyway.  All my times were off, my heart rate was probably way too high (I don't know for sure because I wasn't wearing a HR strap), and I just generally didn't feel like being out there.    Looking back, of course, hindsight is 20/20 and I can see that had I just chilled out a bit, I wouldn't be in the predicament I find myself in now.

With the final race of our season coming up in a little over a week, it's time to shut things down for today.  I'm being pro-active in NOT being active and hoping that my body will come back around in time for a training session tomorrow.  At this point in the season, the cards are already pretty much in place.  Not a whole lot will happen in the time left before the race, and my only hope is that I'm smart enough to realize that for me, it's probably better to go into it being a bit more rested than trying to be a hero right now.

Nevertheless, even with this little illness, I'm feeling overall strong on the bike and looking forward to racing.  Getting back into endurance mountain biking this year has been great, my only wish being that I'd planned it over last winter instead of hopping on the wagon mid race season.  Still, it's great to be back doing something I love, and I'm super excited for what's to come next season.  There's a lot in the plans and when it's finally cemented, things are going to be lots of fun next year.

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