Training vs. Racing

Something with in my DNA just makes me relish competition. Maybe this is why I race more often than I should. Perhaps, I race to the point of over racing. There are others that race more often than I do and race at just as many different distances.

When do I know that I have reached the point of over racing?

The signs will vary. However, the biggest red flag occurs when my breathing is fine but my legs refuse to go any faster.     

I know it is time to drop every stressful workout from my schedule and just put in some nice aerobic miles. The recovery time also varies. There are times when I bounce back in a couple of weeks. Other times, the bounce back takes 4 to 8 weeks. I have even gone on recovery periods for 3 or 4 months.

I know when I am ready to return to something much harder when I start to feel eager to run again.

This summer I would head out for a run and it would take me 15 to 20 minutes before I made the first stride. I push through it because I had a full load of races that I had registered to run. But in the back of my mind, it nagged at me. I would run as hard as I could but I was not sure that I was giving my best. I was not preparing myself properly.

 This is a struggle we all face in Carolinas. The weather is ideal pretty much year round so there are a plethora of races.

The desire to race can overrule the common sense logic that a training run might be better for me than a race.

 

Sharing one thought at time,

The Cool Down Runner