Communicating with your coach, on how things are going, is critical.  After each workout, I leave my coach a few notes in TrainingPeaks, detailing how I am feeling and how that particular workout went.

Over the past two days, my legs have felt quite tired and dead when running or biking.  It is a feeling that I get when cumulative fatigue is building up.  I mentioned this feeling in the notes to my coach. 

I had two workouts scheduled for today; a run and a bike.  I knew ahead of time, that my legs were likely to feel tired during these sessions, but I was prepared to do them anyway.  I have done lots of workouts on tired legs over the years.

At lunchtime, I got changed into my run gear and was about to go into the basement to run on the treadmill, when I got a text message from my coach.  The text said “Day Off”.

I thought he was asking if I was taking a day off, so I answered “no, I am about to go run”.  He immediately replied saying “I wasn’t asking a question, I was making a statement… take the day off”.  

This is why having an independent coach, watching over you, is so valuable.  Left to my own devices, I would have done both workouts today.  While this wouldn’t have been a significant problem, I would almost certainly dug myself into deeper ‘fatigue hole’.

A timely ‘day off’ can do wonders for your long term training outlook.  Nobody ever lost fitness by taking the very occasional day off.  In fact, it is likely that it helps overall fitness, because a properly rested and recovered body grows strong and can do future workouts more effectively.

So tonight, I am putting my feet up and relaxing.  I already feel better and excited to get back after it tomorrow.