Listen To Your Body

This weekend, Daniel gave me the biggest compliment.  He said, "You are really good at listening to your body."  It came up as we were doing speed work at the track.  I was killing it, and he noticed.  I was running faster than the pace he set for me on my repeat 800s which almost never happens.  I told him that I was feeling really good that day, so I was pushing myself.

Rewind 24 hours to Friday and I felt terrible.  Everything in my body ached.  My glutes were sore, my foot hurt, my calves were tight...the list went on.  There was a swim on my workout schedule, but I decided to take the afternoon and get a massage instead.  I went to Texas Sports Massage where the owner worked on my lower body.  Then she stretched my lower back which resulted in a loud "pop" and then everything felt better again.  She explained that because my back was misaligned, my glutes were compensating.  If I had kept working out, it may have taken much longer to feel better.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized I base a lot of my workouts on how I feel that day, and I credit that to staying injury-free.  I'm not saying I give into my body when it wants to sit on the couch instead of going to the gym, but once I get going I push myself just hard enough that I won't need to take a day off the next day.

Last Wednesday I had a 50 minute run scheduled.  I laced up and took off at a very early time in the morning.  My pace after mile 1 was just over 11 min/mile.  This wasn't the pace I wanted, but I also knew I didn't want to quit my run early.  I continued jogging along at my slower than normal pace and finished that 50 minute run (my longest run in over 2 months).  Afterwards I felt like I'd given a good effort level, and I knew that my next long run would be even faster.

Do you listen to your body and take care of it to prevent injury?

My goal for injury prevention this next month is more stretching.  I don't do enough to cooldown and recover post-workout.