Monday, March 24, 2014

When do you cancel a workout?

Feeling good after a high-volume (for me) training week last week, I went to bed on the early side last night planning on an early wake-up call to hit the pool this morning. It just didn't happen.

I didn't get a great night's sleep, waking up every hour or so to look at the clock. I wasn't hot, I wasn't cold, I wasn't having bad dreams, the dogs weren't hogging the bed... I just couldn't get that solid shut-eye. When I woke up at about 4:50, I knew there was no way I was getting out of bed 20 minutes later and reset my alarm. And went back to sleep.

I usually don't feel bad about skipping a morning workout if I actually go back to sleep after I turn off my alarm. Sleeping for an additional two hours is a pretty big red flag to me that I needed the extra rest. Waking up five minutes after my early alarm and then tossing and turning... then maybe I could have gotten out of bed after all.

When I did get out of bed, I had a headache and didn't feel great. I felt a little better after my coffee. But I hadn't chugged too much extra over the weekend, so I don't think it was caffeine withdrawal.

I had put in a speed run Friday night, two and a half hours on the bike Saturday, and a 10-mile run and heavy lifting Sunday. Did I need more rest than one lousy night's sleep? I certainly did feel better after an extra two hours in bed.

It remains an experiment of one: How to get in strong training sessions and enough recovery while trying to juggle a family, full-time job and everything else? Maybe the occasional Monday morning off is the key.

No comments:

Post a Comment