I’m sure you’ve experience workouts where it wasn’t going right and felt you needed to stop.
There’s usually a voice inside that tells you to continue.
Sometimes stopping is going to benefit you more than continuing.
The plan for this workout was 60min run at an easy pace. Some days running feels hard, this run it was a different hard.
Before the run I felt great, sleep was 4/5, what I ate that morning hadn’t changed. My motivation was high. I share these things because these markers can all impact on how you perform.
Throughout this run everything felt off, my body was significantly heavier when landing and take-off. (The usual lightness was not existent).
I couldn’t sustain my easy pace, the body hurt when it shouldn’t, my heart rate was higher, and breathing was a struggle.
After struggling through 40 minutes, the usual talk, “push through it’s only 20mins keep going”.
A lightbulb moment: my body was indicating continuing this run was not going to serve my training positively, in the was it should. I was not going to get any benefit from continuing for the remaining 20 minutes.
Decision made, stop the run.
To pull the pin can be a mentally tough decision, you can think you’ve taken the easy option. It really isn’t an easy decision.
Later that day, I noticed my body hurt in places it doesn’t usually hurt following a run. Another indicator stopping was the best option for me.
Q. How do you know if you should adjust or pull the pin on a workout?
A. Your performance isn’t matching the purpose or intensity of the work out. E.g. the plan is working at a 6/10 effort and your effort feeling like a 9-10.
This indicates you need to adjust by lowering your intensity. Following the adjustment and the effort stays the same or increases it might be the signal you’re done for today.
Q. Ask yourself, “will continuing help or hinder the rest of the week”?
A. Will you need to spend extra time recovering, will it affect other parts of your daily life, activities you want to participate in?
Exercising and training is a long-term process it’s about overall consistency and patience, if your body is indicating you need to adjust or end a workout that one session modification will not have a negative impact on your overall performance.
You don’t always need to push through, no pain no gain doesn’t always serve you positivity.
With Love!
Leonie
