This topic is a tricky one, but one that the athlete has to be honest about. We all know what its like to feel tired, fatigued and simply without any energy to muster getting off the couch or out of bed, let alone getting ready for a 12km tempo run...
Quite often its a result of a few weeks of hard training that (the importance of a rest week can not be stressed enough) the inset of fatigue becomes apparent. This is a common occurrence with all athletes that train and especially those who put in high mileage for endurance events. Similarly we tend to feel less enthusiastic as we once were at the beginning of our training period and as a result the early morning wake up to get on the bike seems less tempting than it did a few weeks previous?
The trick is to be honest with yourself, are you too tired, or are you being lazy? If its the latter, then its an easy answer - " get on your bike", however if you physically feel drained to the point that it starts to affect other area's of your normal day, i.e work, ext... then use the time to recover. It is just as important to have rested adequately in order to give of your best during training as it is to stick to your training program in order to achieve your end goal.
The training program can be changed to suit such days when recovery is needed. However it is up to the athlete to ensure that "the candle is not being burnt at both ends" and sufficient rest time is included during your training week. This will ensure that the number of times you have to ask yourself whether you are lazy or physically tired, are greatly reduced!
To achieve genuine results and improvement, you must be honest with yourself in training...
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