40 Days to the Tough Mudder

A wise old coach once told me, "listen to your body." And it took a couple years to understand exactly what he was saying as my pursuits to get faster-stronger-better at mountain biking failed. And then one day, I took the day off from training. Then a couple days later, another day off. Then I started building in more and more days off and low and behold, I discovered less aches and pains and guess what, I didn't lose a whole lot of fitness! Of course I wasn't racing as much so it didn't mean as much. But the point here is you MUST take days off and rest - especially when your body is screaming at you. You'll know it when it happens - you can barely get out of bed, you are SO tired you feel like your eyelids can't stay open unless you somehow prop them, and that sluggish feeling just won't let up. I'm there. Yesterday was almost a sick day and today is just about the same. It appears the weekend was a bit much and the body is letting me know. So no 4:00 am crunches yesterday, and yesterday's day off included only a little stretching last evening. It was beddy time at 8:00 pm and today again, no 4:00 am weighted-ball workouts. Tonight we stop at the YMCA on the way home and I'll see how I feel then to determine the workout. If all is well, I'll run a 4-mile tempo run (10 minute mile pace) on the treadmill followed by a weight workout (30 each of tricep dips, pull-ups, tricep presses, leg presses, bicep curls, shoulder press and chest press). The wise old coach was right... listen to your body -- always.