0 Look After Yourself. Knowing When You've Had Enough Exercise

Pushing yourself hard is the best way to see improvement in your mental and physical conditioning.  Nothing beats the satisfied, warm feeling you get after a strong week of hard training.  Whilst you need to keep challenging yourself, it's very important that you know when it's time to take a break.  Pushing your body to far will almost always result in an injury or illness that will set your training back further than you might think.


As I've mentioned before, rest and recovery are the most important part of any training regime.  Your body needs time to repair damaged muscles and overcome built up fatigue.  Without adequate sleep (at least 7 or 8 hours a night), and regular rest days (where you do nothing), you will find yourself feeling worn out and your body will begin to let you down.  Injuries are all to often brought on, or exacerbated, by a lack of sufficient recovery time.


In order to provide the power you need for training and racing, your body needs the right kinds of fuel.  Make sure you are eating regular healthy meals.  Fuels that release energy over an extended period are better suited to your needs, and will prevent you from feeling hungry between meals.  Your body will be burning through it's stored energy at a much faster rate, so make sure you are getting enough, healthy, low fat food to sustain you.  There are a million different diets out there, but the bottom line is be sensible.  You know which foods are good for you and which aren't.  Indulge in the unhealthy ones every now and then if you want to, but try to be consistent with the healthy foods.


The most important thing to remember is to listen to your body.  If you feel too tired to work out, take a rest day.  A niggle can turn into a much more serious injury if you try to ignore it and "push through the pain".  I am currently recovering from an annoyingly persistent bout of shin splints that would no doubt be more prolonged if I had kept running as frequently as I have been. 

If you are feeling worn down after a period of sustained training, give yourself a couple of days off, or re-energise yourself by mixing up your training.  If you are swimming and riding on a regular basis, add a trail run, weights session or a spin class to your training.  You'll not only get the benefits of cross-training, but you will find you remain motivated to train longer and find it easier to get out of bed in the morning.  Your brain is just as important in the training process as your muscles, so keep it interested with variety.  Just as we get bored of the same diet or repetitive task, we need to continually vary our training.