… even if it tells you to sleep until 8:30am”
I think first you need to find patterns. Things you do every day so you can compare the “body feeling” on a day to day or week to week basis.
For me my pattern is the getting out of bed. Every day after getting out of bed and having my first coffee or sometimes Biest Booster I observe myself. How sore do my legs feel, how is my mood, how is my overall mental state and do I feel healthy?
Of course my physical well-being depends on the training I did the day before. But only being sore muscularly does not mean I will take an easy day. For me it’s a mix of mood, mental feeling and physical feeling (two types: healthy-wise like sore throat and soreness because of training). Upon that I decide if its better to back off or keep pushing. A big factor in making sure that my recovery is appropriate is sleep! This is crucial for me as I need up to 10 hours sometimes. If I had a restful night I feel this right away when I am getting out of bed.
Even if I slept like an angel I am still not a morning person at all. I can’t train properly just after getting out of bed. Mostly my muscles are still tight when swimming hard or running intervals. People told me you just have to get used to it but I am also kind of a night person and I can’t really sleep before 10.30pm. So for me I found out, to skip these early workouts or just do them as a warm up (like a 30 – 40 minutes run before breakfast or swimming 45 minutes by just cruising). I had been trying for a long time to squeeze in those 6:00am swims but it just did not work for me.
Since accepting this and not feeling guilty to sleep until 8:30am I am doing my swims at 10:00am. It feels day and night, if I compare the quality improvement of these training sessions.
But still my best training I am doing between 10:00am – 1:00pm. This is my sweet spot.
In the end it is all about balance. Our wish is to feel vital all the time but this is not possible for us athletes. To feel “bad” is part of it and I think it’s important to respect your body and treat it with appropriate mental and physical rest. Just laying in bed doing nothing but thinking what kind of interval you will do tomorrow is not recovering in my eyes. Get your mind off triathlon and just enjoy the moment… because the next session is coming anyway.
I’m a rooky in training and planned a 35 mile ride for today before it snow this evening again. But I developed a chest cold and sore throat last night. Some say to push through illness. What is your recommendation on that? I don’t have a fever and I don’t feel weak. If I don’t ride today, it may be weeks before the snow and ice are gone.
per me invece è un periodo così nero che appena resto da sola tiro un sospiro di sollievo… però mi sa che non è tanto berev…oorlli prendere l'auto, andar in cima ad una montagna e urlare…e poi forse posso tornare tra la gente…