Down with the sickness

I am good at setting goals for myself and disciplined enough to stick to them. But unfortunately when I really get in to training I tend to push it too far - the result being a forced lay-off due to tweakiness or flu. Having been in a great space for the last 3 months I succumbed to both forcing me to find ways to tread water for a while - i place I really dislike!

Reading this blog post has made me more thoughtful about what my indicators are and if it is possible to stop before it is too late?

Urban Ninja lists the following:

1. Sugar – when I am close to the limit, I crave sugar.
2. KFC – nothing beats a Boxmaster Deluxe Upsize with a Chocolate Shake when I am feeling on the edge. Its a sure sign I need to back off.
3. Erratic sleep – I will be dead tired by 8pm and ready for bed but when I get to bed I sleep badly. My body is so broken I can’t sleep properly. This happens to me a few times a year, but that’s only because me + music + forests = totally overdoing it.
4. Hiding from the world – I will go into a cocoon when I am overdoing it, avoiding people, socializing and crowds of people. Insert me into society and I tend to be short and upsetting to those around me.

 Pic: Sourced from Urban Ninja - Lance pushing it.

Some obvious ones for me are general lethargy, lack of psyche and tweakiness (Shoulders, elbows and fingers). Lack of sleep is definitely another, and often pre flu/cold I have an unquenchable thirst. Any others?

Whats difficult I find though is to judge when to stop or when to push through, especially with tweakiness. From what I have read it is often better to drop intensity then to stop altogether as light exercise stimulates blood flow which helps recovery. This is currently the approach I am testing so for now no more beastly BM sessions with repeaters - strictly a diet of 35 degree slopers and bouldering on holds that aren't too painful.