Stacey Richardson’s Weekly Workout Tip:
I can't face another workout!
In last week’s New York Times article, Gina Kolota cited the limits of workouts and the struggles faced by all athletes: How much is too much? When do you rest? What is a challenge or self-destructive? What are the signals for needing a rest day, doing too much too soon, or to little?
“So how to avoid a self-defeating training program? There are no hard and fast rules, because individual athletes vary so much. A training program that one person thrives on will break another, equally talented athlete” she says.
EXACTLY, is what I say!!!
Now we coaches can’t easily get inside your cells and measure glycogen synthetase, but we certainly can and do study your other responses to training. Your training is your response to the questions we ask of you as coaches. We ask you how far, how hard, and how often and you answer us by your responses in mental fitness, attitude, skill, improvement movement patterns, race day performances, and lab results to name a few.
Seems to me that there is no perfect program that exists but that articles like this support the profession of coaching. It is our job to get inside your head, to study you, to listen, and to apply the appropriate amount of training stress as you make further adaptations.
Even better is it often our job to say NO to extra races, workouts performed when sick or tired, or training through small injuries in the hopes of overcoming them.
Be honest with yourself about your workouts; log them, study them, set fitness goals and achieve them. But learn first and foremost to listen to your body. It will whisper at first and then SHOUT at you later. Kind of like that coach you need to hire in 2012. ; )
Check out my new Wellness program in addition to multisport coaching. Make 2012 the year you ask for help in achieving your goals, however big or small.