Tuesday 100706

Bosley unable to train today, because he trained beyond his threshold yesterday. 

Learn From Bosley – Know When to Say When

It's a fine line between "gettin' her done" and causing an injury that will prevent you from effective training.  Is it worth it to rip your hands on a workout?  Should you always push through the pain and suck it up?  Well that depends.

Here is an example of when it is too much.  Take my three year old dog Bosley; he's in great shape, goes on walks and runs regularly, eats paleo and rests all day long.  He's doing it all the "right" way.  Well Bosley's paws have a tissue tolerance, just like our hands do.  If Bosley runs to long or far, his paws will pay the price.  He will run his heart out for as long as you run with him, even if all his pads are ripped off the bottom of his feet.  Then immediately after, he's limping and unable to even walk outside to go to the bathroom.  

Well over the years Matt and I have (somewhat) learned where that tolerance is, we try to avoid it at all cost, which means Bosley doesn't go on runs much longer then 4 miles.  Well, he doesn't really like our rules and whenever we aren't around he trys to show off to his friends that he can go as long as they can.  This weekend he went for six miles on mountain trails with his friends Riley and Leila.  He couldn't let Riley and Leila see his weak-side, so he never showed any signs of pain from the distance of running.  Low and behold his ego got in the way and what happened?  His paws ripped.  

So what is the big deal?  Unfortunately, Bosley has to stay off his feet as much as possible while his paws heal.  Knowing Bosley, once he's healed he'll try to show off again and if we don't watch him he'll end up right back with torn paws.  At this rate, he will be completing a fraction of the "training" he could be doing.  The ripping in essence in not making him tougher at all, but just the opposite.  He is constantly having to heal from this injury.  So when do you say when?

If completing a work out will prevent you from training tomorrow, it's not worth it.  Modify it so that you can still get a work out in, but not prevent further training.  Come consistently to build tolerance and if you think you may have "tweaked" something, or it's inflamed, LET IT REST, until the inflammation goes away (this usually only takes a few days).

This does not mean we're getting "soft".  On the contrary, we just want you to train smart, so that we can train you harder tomorrow.