it's okay to say no

No, I'm not talking about saying no to drugs or sex. I'm talking about saying no to racing and or training when your body is telling you not to. This is perhaps the hardest skill, especially for age group triathletes, to master. Far to often amateur endurance athletes attempt to train through injuries to the point where they may end their season prematurely. In addition, many self coached athletes don't allow themselves ample recovery time between intense or long efforts. This can lead to injury also.

Our human physiology is like a rubber band, somewhat. We can only stretch and push ourselves so far before something snaps. The idea behind proper training is to stretch ourselves to just before that point, with out going over, and then let ourselves recover so that we addapt to the new limit that we just set. If we go to far though, beyond our previously established limits to quickly, then we are setting ourselves up for a lot of time in the ice bath nursing injuries.

There's a phrase floating around out there that I bleive is getting a lot of people in trouble. You've probaby heard it - HTFU, wich stands for: Harden The F#$* Up. You know, suck it up, tough it out, don't be such a wussy! This is all fine and well, unti you end up with your leg propped up on an ice bag, and aren't able to train for weeks or even months.

I'm a firm beleiver that there is a time and a place for HTFU, and for the most part that's pretty much racing. Training needs to be more calculated than just gritting your teeth and pushing as hard as you can every day. Our bodies adapt better to slow and incremental additon of resistance.

This past week I was tested. I developed an inflamed achilles tendon the week before I was supposed to run the Thrills in the Hills half marathon at Fort Yargo State Park. I could have run and HTFU'ed my way through the entire thing. Chances are I would have been out for 2-3 weeks of training trying to rehab my achilles afterwards. Instead I took the hardest pill there is to swallow and opted not to race in an event I had signed up for. It was a bitter pill to swallow but I knew it was the right thing to do. Instead I gave the race entry to my friend Patrick, and I spent the day spectating (and icing my achilles) as Naomi and him ran. I really didn't feel 100% good about the decision until the day after the race. After only a day of rest and rehab, my achilles was already feeling better. When this is all said and done I will probably only miss 2-3 days of training, as opposed to the 2-3 weeks I may have missed had I run a hard trail half.

So the lesson is learned. Always listen to your body and don't be affraid to rest it when it's telling you. I will look back on this season and see the decision I made not to race as probaby a pivotal point in my year of racing. Although I missed a few workouts, this was probably my smartest and most productive week of training yet.