Concept2 Forum

I'm wondering if bad days are something that shouldn't happen if you train right, or it is something that happen for no reason. I'm thinking in days like today, that I plan a 10K at an easy 2:00/500M pace, but quit at the 5K mark because were tired.

Atorrante,

Every athlete has bad days now and again, even the top level guys. There are a million variables that can influence how you feel. Sometimes it means you have been pushing it harder than your body is ready, other times it could be a combination of things like lack of sleep, not eating enough, a little bit dehydrated, etc.

Rich

Considering my habits are the same, which for the most part they are, most variation in my training then comes from the ambient conditions.

These might entail such things as the dew point, heat, vehicle exhaust, smoke from fires, chemtrail dumping from tanker jets, chemical dumping in public water supplies, paint fumes, noise, microwaves, radioactive fallout and so on.

There is a lot to contend with these days.

Not to forget the exotic radiation and gravity waves from UFOs...

Solar Flares, Dark matter interactions, Alien Abduction. The list of reasons for having a bad day are endless (according to John anyway).

But other than the more sensational claims, it may have been because you were just tired. Everybody has off days in training, and even the best have off days in competition, this was just one of yours.

Next time you go to the erg, try the 10km again. You may surprise yourself.

Atorrante, RowtheRockies is correct in that there are so many factors that go into rowing better than expected or worse than expected. The key is not to let "bonking" become a habit. If you know you did something that will affect your workout then take steps to correct the problem (i.e. drink more water if you were dehydrated).
When I bonk I do my best to finish what I have started no matter how crappy I feel. That seems to help me not lose the mental battle every time I step on the erg because I know I am going to finish a piece no matter what even if my times aren't what I hoped.

This is good advice here from everyone. I think the key is that if you "train right" bad days will not happen very frequently and are due to the "many variables". Fortunately, I seem to have as many GREAT days as I do bad days. A great day is kind of the ying to the yang of a bad day. You feel extrordinarily better than usual and feel you could go forever. If you are having bad days any more frequently than a couple a month, I would suggest that you are pushing yourself to hard and unable to recover. I have what I would call a bad day maybe once every couple of months

Rich