Listening vs Pushing

How do you handle it when you start out on a run (alone) and you feel like hell?  Nothing specific hurts, but you just feel sluggish from the get-go and something is telling you it’s not your day?

Do you push through and make it work?

This happens to me occasionally (maybe once a month) and I generally listen to my body, head back home, and try again later.

If I drive somewhere to run and I feel this way, I push through and my body usually adapts, but from home I choose to quit.

This happened to me this morning again. After a great last week of training, I figure I was due for a bad day, but this morning was really pathetic and I only made it about 50 meters before I came home.

I think it’s smart to listen to my body, but at the same time, in race conditions I like to able to push through fatigue and get it done under any circumstances.  These seem to conflict with each other.

How do you handle it?  Coaches, what do you recommend to your clients?

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