The Hardest Thing for Athletes to Do Is to Not Work Hard

Guest Blog: Wenzel Coach – Elaine Bothe

Working Hard or Working Smart?

When you’re feeling great, there is nothing like the exhilaration of a sunrise training run or a long bike ride. You look forward to your strength training and intervals, because you know it will all pay off on event day. We athletes love to work hard!

But sometimes it takes a little extra time to round up your gear because you forgot to pull that last load from the washer to let your shorts hang dry. Or your heart rate monitor battery is dead, a tire is flat, or… it’s something else. All this cuts into your valuable training time, and it’s not uncommon to feel depressed about missing your exercise and stressed about the things that are out of your control.

External influences: Learn to let it go. Accept your day isn’t going the way you want it to, and pick it up again tomorrow!

It’s a bummer to miss a training day when everything is going right physically. Do you feel like you need double up the next day? Change up your diet or feel grumpy because you missed one workout?

Few of us are paid professional athletes who do this for a living. Training is a big part of our lives but sometimes it just doesn’t fit, even for the professionals. But missing a day or two of training here or there is not going to derail your season.  Relax, and remember your goal. The fact that you’re already working toward your goal puts you further ahead than you realize.

The longer we try to force the training to happen, the more things seem to go wrong, and the more frustrating it becomes! By quickly accepting a surprise day off, we can better deal with the outside stresses that caused us to miss our training. Letting go of a planned workout when it just isn’t going to happen will make the next day’s workout  more effective and satisfying.

Internal influences: Recognize the signs you might need a break.

Stuff happens beyond our control, sure. But sometimes, for no good reason at all, it seems hard to find our shoes and put our nutrition together. It’s easy to get distracted by emails, the laundry or chats with coworkers or friends. Or you’re thinking about all the other things you need to do in addition to your training.

These internal distractions could be subtle signs of fatigue. Stress at home or at work add to feeling tired and over-trained, even if you haven’t been pushing too hard  physically. Stress slows recovery so that your normal training load can become too much. Also, our brains tire before our bodies do, and your slowness to get ready to train could be your brain trying valiantly to get your body to ease up a little. Continuing with a scheduled training plan when we feel this way could delay recovery and lead to overtraining or even burnout.

It’s better to take an unscheduled training  day off before you need it than to wait too long. Pay attention to yourself and you’ll start to recognize your own signs. And, just like the days when you get a flat or your kids are sick, the sooner you accept the signs that you might need a break and actually take one, the sooner you’ll be back on track.

You get stronger on your days off. Really!

No one can train hard every single day of the week, week after week, throughout the season or year to year. Training (and life) wears us out both physically and mentally. Even if training is your favorite thing in the world, you need to take a break from it. If steak is your favorite meal and you eat it every day, three times a day, it won’t be your favorite for long.

Everyone should be taking regular rest days in his or her training program, and some of us more than others. But athletes are driven. It’s extremely hard to sit still and do nothing, but our bodies will thank us and we will be stronger for it. Resting is far from doing nothing, and takes just as much discipline as other workouts, perhaps even more! Training breaks down your muscles; rest puts them back together, faster and stronger.

Training is hard, and knowing when to train hard or rest is even harder. Listen to your body, pay attention to yourself, and soon you’ll learn your own signs when it’s time to take a break. Rest helps keep it fun, and as a result you’ll enjoy a longer, more satisfying season and training career.

Work hard to not work hard sometimes. When we’re tired, our sport is not as much fun. We’re not as fast, hills are harder and we are sore. It’s up to us as athletes to know ourselves and recognize the signs that our bodies aren’t performing at their best. As much as we take care of our equipment for optimal performance, we need to take care of ourselves—if not for this season, for the next, and the next after that.


 
Wenzel Coach Elaine Bothe, age 50, races mountain bikes and cyclocross in cross country, enduro, downhill and short track, often as an Open Pro or Expert, and holds a 5th place national championship age-group medal and state championship medals in cross country. www.wenzelcoaching.com

Tips for Rearranging Your Training Plan


-Not working hard takes just as much discipline as working hard, if not more!

-Accept the frustration of missing a workout and let it go as soon as you can. Move on with your day.

-Surprise day off? Swap your planned exercise for your next scheduled day off if it’s within a couple of days

-Don’t double up your workouts unless you feel rested and don’t have a big event in the near future

-If you’re in the middle of your event season, an extra day off will probably help much more than an extra workout.

-Allow yourself time to get better from sickness or injury. You’ll bounce back soon enough
 

Athlinks Staffhttp://blog.athlinks.com
Posts by the Athlinks Staff are authored by our in-house group of athletes and subject matter experts in the fields of performance sports, nutrition, race organization, and training.

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