One of my gymnasts was recently sick and showed up to practice half asleep and with zero energy. After watching her put no effort into her bar assignment and struggle to finish I asked her why she came to practice if she felt miserable. Her response was: "at least I'm not missing practice with our meet only 2 weeks away."
True she wasn't missing practice, but it would have been better if she just stayed at home in my opinion. I explained to her that showing up to practice when you can't give it your all is a waste of time and it would be better for her to stay at home next time. She was standing around more than she was taking her turns. When she did take her turn she was lose and her form was sloppy. Staying tight and focused in gymnastics is very important because if you don't do it while your flipping upside down you can land on your head. And, it actually looked like she was going to hurt herself because she was so sloppy. To me this doesn't help you improve but instead causes you to form bad habits and worse yet maybe injury.
Where am I going with all of this? I guess that not every practice or workout goes as planned and sometimes it's better to do nothing at all....
Last night when I got home from coaching at 9 something I was tired. I pulled out my trainer anyhow and started spinning. I wasn't feeling it at all and felt like I was giving about a 20% effort level. After 25 minutes I decided it would be better to just stop. Sure I could have kept going for the hour I was suppose to ride, but I don't think I would have really got anything out of it.... Now was this the right decision, I don't know?
Anyhow, I hope everyone has a great weekend :)
I am looking forward to not cooking (if I even ever do) and going out to dinner tonight.
it's so hard to just say....i'm going to sit this one out. sigh. have a great weekend!!
ReplyDeleteWe're endurance athletes! It's ingrained in us that we have to get in the miles. Plus, we aren't able to get by with only 2-3 practices a week; there's not much wiggle room in our hectic training schedule. So it makes it tough to relinquish the miles in place of rest.
ReplyDeleteIt's a tough choice to make, but one that's just as important to make. You can only break your body down so much. Hope you're feeling better!
Tough decision. I usually try to fight through the tiredness/blahs unless I am experiencing for multiple days in a row. If I am feeling like crap for 2 or 3 days then it is time to scale it back.
ReplyDeleteI think every now and then you have to give yourself a break, otherwise you'll go crazy. Have a great weekend!
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