Timing your training

The absolutely most effective and the most dangerous training is where you go hard to the edge and stop. Going over the edge results in a good chance of injury, but if you time the effort exactly right you get the maximum benefit.

I had a reminder of this fact this week. I often do training walks 2 days in a row and sometimes even 3 days in a row. But Monday I walked hills late evening, Tuesday I walked hard about mid day and Wednesday I did a hard 8 miles, in the early morning. So instead of 3 hard walks over 72 hours, in reality I did them in 48 hours. I woke up Thursday morning quite sore all over and my feet were very sore on the bottoms.

I think I stopped just in time, any further training would, I'm sure, have resulted in some type of injury. I just did pool workouts the next 3 days and stayed off my feet as much as possible. I was finally feeling good again by the next Monday. I probably came back stronger but I almost over did it big time. That foot pain felt like it could easily have become a PF strain.

When a muscle is asked to preform when it's tired and hasn't recovered from the last workout it's very easy to strain or pull something. Once you pass that edge a long recovery is usually required.

It's like weight lifting, if you have a really super lifting session you will come back stronger, but if you try to lift again before the muscles are rested they can easily fail. Slow but steady progress is the best way to train whether it's weight lifting, running, walking or biking.

Along with that slow and steady progress is getting enough rest between workouts and not trying to squeeze in extra training.

Thanks for reading.

Rambling Panda