Lightweight Eats

If you follow me on Twitter, you've probably noticed a lot of recovery-related tweets. As a rower, I've had difficulty balancing training load with recovery.

Unfortunately, coaches often avoid discussing this topic. For example, see the following conversation from a recent USRowing Twitter chat:


In my experience, coaches and athletes fall into two camps.

This article is a great representation of the first argument: push through fatigue to become a faster athlete.

On race day, these athletes have no doubt that they have put in the work. But did they do more work than they needed to for the results?

There are a lot of articles about overtraining, like this one and this one.



A scientist at heart, I fall firmly into the recovery camp, but I'm often left doubting my commitment to training programs. Fortunately, I have found some ways to help me find a better balance.

First, although you reduce the physical gains, I am beginning to understand the importance of the mental gains from workouts performed fatigued. Finding a training partner to help you get through these tough workouts is invaluable.

Training partners and coaches help gauge normal fatigue. Are you a over trained or just training hard? The eyes of a coach can help decide.

Second, if you don't want to do a workout, work on your motivation to do the recovery work. Certainly there are Saturday nights when I want to go out dancing and drinking, or Sunday mornings when I'd rather eat pancakes with syrup than fruits and veggies. Those times test your motivation more than your desire to do an extra 90-minute workout.

Finally, if you're exhausted, considering rescheduling a key workout instead of skipping it. If you have a tough workout every other day, this can be challenging. Still, it may be worth your while to make a swap to execute your key workouts better.


Although I'm getting better, I still have a lot to learn. So I'd like to ask the audience:
How do you find the balance? When do you skip a workout? Any advice or tools that I should be aware of? Articles to read?

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