Extra Rest.
Lately I've been taking more rest days than I used to.
I used to take one every week or so, whether I felt tired or not. I had them programmed into the plan, usually right after a series of progressively harder days. The squiggly graph lines on Training Peaks would trend upwards for a week, then drop when I'd take a rest day. Then I'd start again. If I worked harder, each week's squiggly line would be slightly higher on the graph than the last. Moving that trend upwards usually was result of a lot of work.
If I wanted it to trend downwards, all I had to do was take a day off. Do nothing. Skip a couple days and the line would plummet. The more days off, the more hard work was negated. At least, that's what the squiggly lines told me.
Sometimes I want the numbers to drop, because I need a break. Maybe it's winter and the amount of trainer time required to maintain those sorts of numbers don't appeal to me. I have a seasonal cyclical thing going on with my squiggly lines by design.
I decided to see what actually trying to listen to my body would do for performance, as opposed to allowing a computer program fed a diet of inconsistent data dictate my schedule. Basically I allowed myself to be lazy. If I felt tired, I didn't beat myself up for my weaknesses. This was certainly a shift in perspective.
I'm not sure if it's working for me, relying on my own perceptions. I can be pretty insensitive to more or less everything. I do like the naps, though. Instead of fighting the rain and wind, I can put my legs up and recover. Most of the time I'm not exactly sure what I'm recovering from. I figure if I recover enough, I'll have vast stores of recovery to draw upon in the future.
Not sure if it works that way, but I have a whole series of naps on the schedule just in case.
I used to take one every week or so, whether I felt tired or not. I had them programmed into the plan, usually right after a series of progressively harder days. The squiggly graph lines on Training Peaks would trend upwards for a week, then drop when I'd take a rest day. Then I'd start again. If I worked harder, each week's squiggly line would be slightly higher on the graph than the last. Moving that trend upwards usually was result of a lot of work.
If I wanted it to trend downwards, all I had to do was take a day off. Do nothing. Skip a couple days and the line would plummet. The more days off, the more hard work was negated. At least, that's what the squiggly lines told me.
Sometimes I want the numbers to drop, because I need a break. Maybe it's winter and the amount of trainer time required to maintain those sorts of numbers don't appeal to me. I have a seasonal cyclical thing going on with my squiggly lines by design.
I decided to see what actually trying to listen to my body would do for performance, as opposed to allowing a computer program fed a diet of inconsistent data dictate my schedule. Basically I allowed myself to be lazy. If I felt tired, I didn't beat myself up for my weaknesses. This was certainly a shift in perspective.
I'm not sure if it's working for me, relying on my own perceptions. I can be pretty insensitive to more or less everything. I do like the naps, though. Instead of fighting the rain and wind, I can put my legs up and recover. Most of the time I'm not exactly sure what I'm recovering from. I figure if I recover enough, I'll have vast stores of recovery to draw upon in the future.
Not sure if it works that way, but I have a whole series of naps on the schedule just in case.
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