Training fatigue is a real thing.  That overall feeling of tiredness, that comes from heavy training, was something I experienced today.  

After a big weekend of workouts, I had a relatively easy day of training today.  At least I thought it was going to be easy. All I had was a short swim session, that would take less than an hour in the pool.  I got up early, and headed to our neighborhood outdoor pool to swim.

My workout started with an easy, 200 yard warm up.  At the end of this easy effort swim, I already knew that today was going to be tough.  I just lacked energy and I knew it was training fatigue.  

When situations like this arise, I ask myself a key question.  Will completing my workout dig me into a deeper hole with fatigue, or will finishing the session result in a solid workout?  If I believe that I will just get more fatigued, I stop the session and skip it.  I don’t want to jeopardize upcoming workouts over the next few days.

Today however, even though I felt tired, I was comfortable that the short swim session would not bury me.  The session wouldn’t be my best, but equally, I knew it would help. I haven’t been swimming enough lately, so I kept going after the warm up.

I never did feel any better in the pool, but I got the workout done.  The rest of the day was now free for me to relax and recover.  This evening, as I write this blog post, I feel confident that I will come back strong tomorrow.  We shall see.