WOD 10-18-09: BLOWOUT

2 hrs total (1 hr. 20 min. walking 2 x 20 min. traffic riding aka intervals)

 

“You’ve gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em,” know when to do kipping pull-ups, know when to run.

 

And know when to lay off and dial the intensity and duration of your workouts, too.

 

When your body says, hey, stop, it’s time to recover, listen, or I guaran-fuckin-tee you’ll end up sick, injured, overtrained, demotivated, depressed, or all of the above at once.

 

Then you’ll have to take more time off to get well again and let your body heal before you can get back at it.

 

I’ve been slowly ramping up the intensity of my workouts the past month, post move. It’s demotivating to step into a WOD or interval session and think about how much ‘better’ you used to be at whatever modality you happen to be trying to execute that day.

 

But if you try to push past that, you’re on a road to nowhere.

 

This Sunday was one of those days for me where I had the mental willingness to get out there and go on a long-ass mountain bike ride and enjoy the clean air and views up here in the Bay Area.

 

But after spending 5 hours training Saturday and half a dozen more on my feet for work, much of it ambulating nonstop, I was totally blown. Ten hours of sleep later (an absolute rarity for me), I woke up on Sunday in the mindset to get out and enjoy the day, but the body Just Said No.

 

Hard as it was, I limited myself to about 1 hr. 20 min. of walking for errands and 2 x 20 min. of riding in traffic for transport. Due to my route choice—it sucked, I don’t know what roads are ‘safe’ to ride on up here in the city yet—I ended up doing about 30 intervals restarting from stoplights, dodging cars trying to merge onto the freeway on ramp (in my path) and other fun stuff. Keeps the heart rate up, riding in the city.

 

Was I stoked to pass up a day of riding? No. It sucked. But I also know that if I’d pushed it, I would’ve gone beyond what I feasibly should have been doing and put myself in a state that would’ve taken three to four days of rest to recover from.

 

Know thyself, know thy body, know thy mind and thou shalt be free.

 

Drill it.