Looking back on the training to this marathon I am doing tomorrow I got about 90% done. Illness and work were what got in the way - and where I could I made up for what I missed.

If I am really run down I will try and get out and do an easier workout - ie a recovery paced run instead of what is in my plan.

With going back to triathlon starting next week should be interesting...been a few years

The thread has made me realize I don’t really do any workouts. I ride pretty much everyday, but never have a plan. Most rides are easy, and some rides are hard when I feel like it.

So I guess there are no workouts to bail on! I generally find people place too much pressure on themselves for this hobby, but I also know we are all wired differently, so everyone has their own approach.

Just remember that volume and consistency are the most important for endurance sports. Specific workouts and intervals have value, but not as much as people think.

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If I've started I'll very rarely bail completely. Did it the other week (stopped pedalling and got off 17 minutes into a 1 hour Trainerroad session) but that's the first time in a few years, and with hindsight I should never have started that workout, I was desperately hoping to be over a lingering illness and wasn't listening to my body. Just glad that I did decide to listen to my body after 17 minutes instead of making myself sick again!

It's pretty frequent for me to skip, postpone, or amend a session based on how I feel. I've learned over the years that staying healthy and training consistently gets me far better results than overdoing it, so I have no problem cutting a workout a bit short, or doing it at an easier intensity than planned. I think listening to your own body and having good self-awareness of your own training tendencies is the most valuable training tool there is. I'm somebody who has a tendency to over-push it - awesome at times as I can bury myself and leave nothing in the locker, but do that too frequently and it leads to illness and injury, so if I'm in any doubt as to my state of health and recovery, backing off is nearly always the right decision rather than pushing through it regardless.

I’m literally in the process of bailing right now. It was my work Xmas party last night and I got in at 4am. I consequently didn’t make my bike club run at 9, and I’ve now not got out of bed in time to make my masters squad. I shall mostly be sitting around in my pants eating pizza today.

In general, I probably bail a couple of times a month in off season, but once into the spring, I’m pretty good at getting out the door. Of course, if ill I don’t bother.

Don’t be too hard on yourself. I think if you’re hitting 90% of your sessions you’ll be ok. It’s not our job at the end of the day! I agree with previous sentiments that if your hitting everything 100% then your program probably isn’t hard enough.

I’ll bail any and all workouts IF there is an injury onset.

I don’t stop my swimming workouts, but sometimes cut it short if my times begin to slow down. At the point your sets begin to slow down, there is little to no sense in continuing to try to hit those positive numbers (it likely won’t happen).

I rarely skip a workout. I will do so if I am really feeling like crap. I’ll take it at recovery time. There have been times, however, when I feel like crap before and at the start of a workout, but end up having a great session.

I agree. I assuming by "bailing" we mean mid-workout. I have bailed on runs where I bit off more than I could chew, hit the wall and just walked it in. This probably happens to me 2-3 times a year. I've never bailed on a swim or a ride that I can remember though.

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"The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue."
- Napoleon Bonaparte

once or twice during the season, maybe. Once a week in the off-season.

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

I'm with STP. If I bail, it means I'm shattered. Which is good.

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What are you people, on dope?

—Mr. Hand

I bail 3-4 times a month, probably.

Sometimes I start thinking I'll have to bail, and then do really well with it. Sometimes I start expecting to crush it and get halfway through and am done.

I don't see it as much of a big deal. All about adapting and moving forward.

Well it depends on how we define "bail". I've bailed on workouts because of injury, soreness that could lead to injury, sickness, shit weather etc But I haven't bailed on workouts because I simply couldn't be fucked or felt tired. I have modified workouts on the fly, a tempo run has become a recovery run, because I felt like shit or it was 110 F. But I'm fine with that.

You look at the DNF rate for IMWA last week, 300/1500, virtually all of those people quit in T2. Is that mental or physical? I wonder how many of those people were quick to bail on workouts? And that's why I won't bail on a workout, because it suddenly opens up other "options" that were previously unavailable. .

ha ha well I think that's a legitimate excuse :)

I've ridden with a stinking hangover and 2 hours sleep, thought I was going into cardiac arrest multiple times, never again.

I usually have to modify a few workouts each week. I usually either have to shorten reps to still hit the total time in a zone, cut back to an endurance with pickups type workout, or just go easy.

I very rarely bag a workout completely if I have the time to do it.

When I start to feel the urge to completely skip a workout, I know I need rest.

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"Don't you have to go be stupid somewhere else?"..."Not until 4!"