When is an Easy Day OK?

I have been fending off a cold for the last week or so. Just a bit of a sniffle, nothing significant. That is until last night. This thing hit my like a ton of bricks. I didn’t sleep well, and was actually awake for an hour in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. That is so frustrating.

So I had a trainer ride scheduled this morning. I was still sore from the kick day at swimming yesterday so I spent some extra time stretching before hopping on the bike. Then I actually got on the bike and rode for 7 minutes at a super easy resistance just to try and stretch the legs out.

I then started the workout and I stopped about 10 minutes in to stretch again. I stopped briefly at each "easy" segment to try and stand up on the pedals, stretch a bit and just will my muscles to keep going. This workout should have been easy, as I just did this one a couple of weeks ago without issue but the combination of health things made this one very difficult.

My coach then commented that if I am not feeling good, or if I am fatigued that it is ok to make it an easy day. But how do you know when to give up on a workout? How do you know until you try? How do you challenge yourself?