Recovery +

Soon after posting my last blog I read the following article from purplepatch - Matt Dixon and it again resonated so well.  I encourage all athletes to read 

 http://purplepatchfitness.com/blog/discipline-difference-between-good-and-great-performance

What is the "money" here or the highlights (from my perspective) 

For example, an athlete may be very disciplined about hitting every workout on their training plan, however, a better application is to be very disciplined about listening to the body and allowing yourself to miss a workout in favor of recovery when necessary.

The essence of discipline is rejecting what you want today, to achieve what you want tomorrow

• Cannot stand to see a slow pace- EVER! Training with GPS/timing often adds stress and depression.
• Mentally and emotionally struggles with recover days. Feels guilt or sees them as a waste of time.
• Believes in an inflexible training plan. Will execute every session on the training plan regardless of how the body feels or ‘real world’ events that are happening (job, family, lack of sleep, etc).  this is why we hire coaches who monitor and work with the athlete- when life "happens" we should consider altering training, short term adjustments can prevent illness, injury or burn out 

This is hard for ALL of us..... missing a workout can feel like "failure", riding off the back makes us feel slower.....but we need to trust in the plan or coach and keep the big picture in mind.  As my old coach Kevin Purcell used to say "do you want to win the workout" or " execute on race day"