Boy did I want to ride hard today, I wanted to smash PR’s and make up for the wedding cake, wine and late night I had. I saved this day so I could go hard.

Ever do that? Ever kick your own ass with a workout after a night of poor choices, or a weekend of parties and late nights? Thinking you’re making up for the extra calories you inhaled and lost sleep by going hard and long?

Hate to break it to you. The body doesn’t work that way, well, not really.

Could you amp up your workout and get some of those extra calories put to good use building and repairing muscle, refilling liver and muscle glycogen stores? Sure, but the excess? Well, it depends, on so many levels! How efficient is your body at utilizing nutrients (metabolic flexibility anybody?), how much stress is your body currently under? Did you have little sleep the night before, did you already have a week of hard workouts, did your nutrition and drinking choices plummet your HRV? Lemme guess, probably all of those things!

So, why do you think adding more stress to your body in the form of a hard workout, would help your body repair any damage already done? When in fact it would be doing close to the opposite, utilizing all the processes needed to convert your excess food to fuel, and instead just shoving the extra energy into cells for storage while dealing with your self-smashing workout.

I know better, I keep the big picture in mind.

So instead of pushing hard and grinding it out, I go easy, and keep my workout aerobic, not adding any more stress to an already distressed nervous system. The aerobic exercise gets my blood flowing, oxygen to my muscles, utilizing fatty acids and upregulating hormones to help boost my immune system. I use the day to build my base and give my body recovery so I can go hard another day, and improve, instead of tear down.

Stop the cycle of self-sabotaging workouts, don’t use exercise as a tool to punish, or clean up the mess. Be smarter, manage the stressors on your body, know when to train hard and when to recover.

I had a great ride, and the next day I felt even better, and bounced back quickly. Would I party as hard as I did next time? Absolutely. I love parties! But I know the cost on my body, and will be responsible for my recovery again, so I can feel good and ride well when it counts!