I am here to tell you, you do NOT need to be a slave to your program. In the words of Barbossa, the program should be more like "guidelines than actual rules". It is soo important to remember that you need to listen to your body, if you need extra rest, take it, if you need to switch up days, do it. You don't need to skip a day and than do double the next, you don't need to speak poorly to yourself about skipping a day. Our bodies sometimes just need extra time, extra rest, extra "me time". So take it.
For example - as I've mentioned, I started a half marathon training program two weeks ago. For me, it's rather intense, as it requires 6 days of working out a week, three of them being running. The first two weeks I sailed through, no issues really. But this week, I sort of hit a wall. My knees and back started to ache, and I just became more tired. So Wednesday, I decided I was going to stretch and rest, instead of cross train (walk two miles). But than, as I sat on the couch, the dreaded guilt set in, "why are you sitting doing nothing, get off your ass, stop being lazy" So I headed out for a 2 mile walk.
Enter Thursday - my body was screaming at me. My knees were killing, I was exhausted, my back was having some slight spasms when I'd turn a certain way. This was my bodies' way of saying "ENOUGH! I need a full, real, true rest day!" So I took it, I said "Okay, I hear you." I sat on the couch, than I took a 40 minute epsom salt bath, than I sat again (with Icy Hot on my knees). And it was glorious.
Because here's the thing, my goal right now, is to make it to my half uninjured and ready to run. How will it help if I push myself to far "training" and can't even run the race anyway?
PS - today is my scheduled rest day, and I'm taking that too, with no guilt. #imnotaslaveforyou
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| Photo from Google Images but original source - http://barefootcolo.com/ |
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