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One way in which "listening to our body" fails us... Sympathetic overdrive (Yes, that would also a great band name 😊) Below you'll see sympathetic vs parasympathetic HRV power (lnLF vs lnHF) for a big training camp that I did (~30 hours of training for the week). At the end of the week, I had one of my best rides ever. I was revved up and felt great. I felt my body shift into battle mode! This is reflected in my HRV. My sympathetic nervous system 'rallied' pumping out all kinds of hormones that got me ready for the task ahead, meanwhile my parasympathetic nervous system was heading for the floor. I was in... Sympathetic overdrive! Our bodies have powerful survival mechanisms in place. If we need to run for a week to escape a predator, we run for a week to escape a predator.. recovery be damned! This is all fine and good until we get away from the predator and are forced to assess the damage. Athletes are often in long-term predator escape mode with a looming race that they "need" to keep pushing for. Our bodies get that message & fire up our SNS to support those "life or death" goals. Meanwhile our recovery slides further and further into the abyss. We "feel great" and yet our metrics tell a different tale... A tale that we should be listening to! Simply monitoring HRV and having a little more visibility into what's going on can help the athlete make the distinction between... "Do I really feel 'great'?" or... "Am I just riding a chemical high right now while my PNS falls deeper and deeper into the abyss?"