The following question was asked:
The only “bad” workout is the one you didn’t do.
A response from another was this: “Or the one you did do when you shouldn’t have”!
I then responded with this – This is one of the hardest lessons for many to navigate… And often VERY misunderstood! Well said!
Well, after thinking about it for a bit, it made me go to these thoughts.
I am carrying on a bit. I want to add some context here. I do this because this can be a hard lesson learned. It is often learned ONLY through experience and/or injury in many cases – in my own triathlon journey and observing many others. Since this was prompted by a coaching group platform of sorts. The main reason I did go into this rabbit hole is because I saw the comment was by a coach so I thought I’d just share from lessons learned and an athlete-only perspective. Hope you don’t mind. Further, many folks that seek coaching or mentorship in triathlon often receive a lot of ill-advised advice without proper context. Training plans and cookie cutter or template oriented approaches at mass are just often not for many in the multisport space of triathlon.
There is little worse than digging a training hole! In this case an unrecoverable training deficit.
One the athlete cannot recover from in the larger scheme of things. This is why I follow a 10 day not a traditional 7 day calendar in my approach.
Why?
It provides me the flexibility to adapt to ‘uncontrollables’ – especially, since I am a hobbyist and not even a pointy ended ‘age grouper’ or more – any more. I’ve traded speed for strength and zen 🙂
This perspective and approach also allows for sharing the overall training load more equitably during training block(s). Somethings – in this case – a specific swim, bike or run workout is just a throw away. My general rule of thumb is this : 1 throwaway every 10 days (max). If I find myself doing more than this, it gives me a measurement to know if the plan or my expectations needs recalibration. When I stay under this threshold, its one less thing to manage among the chaos of life.
A simplified example is – Have you learned that stress is stress is stress? If you didn’t already know, the human body CANNOT compartmentalize stress. Our body DOES NOT get to say oh
- A – Work Stress
- B – Training stress
- C – Family stress
- D – Sleep Hygiene stress
- E – Fumbled Nutrition stress
- F – Relationship stress
The body ONLY sees accumulated stress. The counter point is the MIND does and can compartmentalize the labels of stress, but the BODY is like – Pal, friend –
When someone isn’t navigating this space well, it often only results in the following internalized realizations by the body
- I’m buried
- The body panics
- Mental
- Physical
- Cramps
- Bonks
- Injury
- Make poor or worse decisions
- I’m now DESTROYED!
So, whether it is a calculated missed workout because I have a 10 minute rule – swim, bike or run – if I am ever unsure if I am just in a bad headspace or in a physical one – if after 10 minutes my physical and mental positions don’t align, I shut the work out down! What’s more – an additional inserted workout is ALMOST always counterproductive. I have done this myself and most often observe it in others – as a makeup or a missed workout. Ot the ever so popular, I feel great and over do it – often outside of the context and overall parameters of a training block or cycle coordinated with an event or need to express fitness because of ego or other emotional or socially fueled need! Without proper context this addition serves to destroy a plan or event.
In many cases the added value of skipping or shutting down a workout is just this simple – MORE RECOVERY/REST! Especially when the athlete is honest and consistent in their approach with or without coaching. To clarify, one is truly putting in the effort to any given event or plan. This value add is often better than the alternatives – over training or worse – INJURY!
So I offer a simple lesson learned – for those that can’t navigate the above space well, find a coach or trusted mentoring! I hope that makes sense 🙂. I do know nonconsensual or unsolicited advice is rarely observed when it is not paid for, but here I leave it – as a reminder for myself or a wandering triathlon lover!
See the original and very concise statement – that prompted this run-along 🙂 set of thoughts! Cheers and happy training!
