Pushing through or pulling back: The science of pain and recovery

Triathlon training presents a particularly complex environment in which athletes have to monitor and adapt to avoid injuries from three sports. On top of swimming, biking and running, athletes may be in the gym or yoga studio, all while navigating high volumes of load as the requisite base for any endurance sport. Every triathlete, whether age-grouper or elite, sooner or later faces a tough question about when to embrace the pain and when to stop.

Understanding the science behind pain and recovery can be the difference between peak performance and prolonged injury. The key is knowing how to interpret pain signals during training and recognizing when it’s safe to push forward, and necessary to pull back.

Not all discomfort is equal

Pain during training exists on a spectrum, from the normal soreness of pushing limits to indications of a more serious issue that could lead to potential damage. Scientifically, pain is a complex interaction between sensory nerves, your brain’s interpretation, and factors like fatigue and stress levels.

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is a common response to new or intense workouts, usually peaking between 24 and 72 hours post-exercise. It is safe to train through DOMS, although it may not feel comfortable. Generally, after a solid warm up, the pain associated with DOMS does back off slightly. It’s important to proceed with caution though, and to keep these sessions relatively easy. Efforts in zone 1 or 2 will be helpful in bringing a fresh blood supply to the damaged soft tissue, but not intense enough to cause further micro-tearing.

Acute pain stands apart from DOMS. This is the sharp, sudden pain one feels when a movement happens out of alignment, a fall occurs or a blow to an area. Common acute injuries in triathletes include a pulled muscle, strained ligament, joint disfunction such as with a knee injury, and stress fracture. This is a “full stop” incident. When pain is sudden and arresting it’s a signal from the body to stand down. Pushing through this type of pain will likely cause further damage and increase your recovery time.

Acute injuries can lead to long-term damage if they are ignored. It’s not the news any athlete wants to hear, but neither is a prognosis that has you swapping a season for surgery. Seek professional medical advice (not Facebook crowd-sourcing). Depending on your resources and location, that could be a sports medicine doctor, physiotherapist. orthopedic surgeon or family doctor.

Avoid prolonging recovery

Chronic pain generally starts out as a relatively manageable, short-term injury that develops into a chronic situation. It could be the nature of the injury or the result of not pulling back early enough to avoid prolonging damage. It’s characterized by persistent pain over weeks or months, often due to overuse, like runner’s knee or Achilles tendonopathy.

This is where things get a bit tricky in determining if you should push through or pull back. Depending on the severity of the pain and damage, it is possible to modify training to continue following your training plan to a certain degree. This comes down to the level of pain experienced before, during and after exercise. The threshold varies, but commonly it is suggested that if your pain does not exceed a level of three out of 10, and doesn’t increase during or after exercise, it’s safe to engage in easy sessions.

However, every case is different, and this is where you should take a medical professional’s advice over what your emotions are telling, what your friend did in a similar situation,  or the “experts” online. To push through safely, this situation also calls for professional input in terms of training specificity and load adjustments, which a certified coach can provide.

Scientific principles should guide decisions

The pain-performance threshold colours in that grey area between reasonable pain and injury-type pain. Moderate discomfort correlates with improved endurance adaptation, but pain intensity beyond a five out of 10 on the pain scale is a red flag.

Pain is often an indicator of inflammation, which initially is a good response as it’s your body’s repair mechanism. Acute inflammation can be beneficial, triggering adaptation. When the inflammation becomes stubborn and chronic, this is when action should be taken using additional recovery practices and treatments. The body is indicating it needs more time and assistance to heal.

Be aware that fatigue impacts your perception of pain. A tired brain may perceive minor pain as heightened. This is where athlete self-awareness, and objective metrics like HRV or sleep data, come into play to validate decisions.

When to push through

It is generally safe to continue training if the pain is symmetrical, low-grade on the pain scale, and reduces as you warm up. If pain is localized muscle soreness (DOMS), and not joint-related that is another good sign. Consistent, normal performance metrics like pace, power and heart rate, are also indications that you can proceed, with caution.

It’s also imperative that you ensure adequate rest, nutrition, and hydration during this time. If pain doesn’t linger post-training, or interfere with daily activities, it is likely you are on your way to full recovery.

It’s helpful to follow a few training guidelines during the recovery phase. Use rate of perceived exertion (RPE) and pain journaling. Your coach will appreciate notes in Training Peaks so that, together, you can track patterns and spot early signs of overtraining.

When to rest or modify training

You should stop, rest, or seek professional input if the pain spikes sharply or comes on suddenly. Pain alters your biomechanics and can lead to further, or additional, injuries. If there’s swelling, bruising, or joint instability, rest is best. When pain persists or worsens over multiple sessions, that is an indication you’re heading towards more trouble, and it’s best to cut your loses and take a break from activity. Be cognisant that if fatigue levels become overwhelming despite good sleep and recovery habits, it is likely that your body is not getting enough downtime to do the job of healing.

Know some common red flags to identify disfunction and injury early. A stress fracture will often feel like deep, aching pain that worsens with impact. Injured tendons will feel stiff in the morning when you first get out of bed, and at the start of exercise. If the stiffness or pain worsens or persists after a warm up or gentle mobility, the problem is serious enough to de-load the tendon. A third common problem is IT band syndrome, which can induce sharp lateral knee pain during repetitive motion.

All of these symptoms warrant a visit with a medical professional who can not only diagnose, but prescribe a plan to get you back to health. Each injury calls for a different recovery plan. Stress fracture require a complete de-loading, while tendons recover faster if they are safely and purposefully loaded. All serious injuries require a recovery plan, monitoring, return-to-sport protocols, and reassessment before returning to normal training volume.

How to push

Pushing through pain is a mental game. It’s what is often cited as the key factor separating athletes, that those willing to suffer more are the ones who triumph. If your pain is clearly the “good” kind, then tapping into your mental skills the “how to” push through.

Practice makes perfect. Pushing through a hard workout, or finishing those last few minutes in a session like you were heading towards the finish line in real life, will help you develop the skill of staying strong mentally while experiencing the pain. What you do in practice is what you can achieve on race day. Don’t expect to pull this mental grit out on the course if you haven’t practiced it in training.

Training sessions that can set you up for this type of practice are eye-popping sprints on the bike and short, all-out speed sessions in the pool and on the run. Grinding out those last few repetitions like your life depended on it will help you break through that mental barrier, and it won’t kill you, I promise.

Holding a long threshold effort in any of the disciplines can often be harder than short, all-out sprints. On the bike, an FTP test, or 20-minutes blocks at threshold can put your mental skills to the test. To really up the anti, take your smart trainer out of ERG mode so that you are forced to hold that power without assistance. Without ERG, or out on the road, you now have to take 100 per cent accountability for hitting that power and gritting your teeth with sharp focus in order to maintain it. This skill is so incredibly important in racing. If you always rely on the smart trainer to hold the power for you it will be a challenge for you to do it on your own in a race.

Incorporating workouts that include surging will go a long way on race day. This can be done either by throwing in some surging intervals into an existing workout, or practicing it in a group swim, bike or run when you can surge past fellow athletes. A surge may be as short as 20 seconds or as long as a few minutes. Practice variety as you never know what those final metres in a race is going to serve up in terms of the competition you need to run down.

Using visualization techniques while you’re in the pain cave can help transport you to that moment when you need to pull out all the stops to get over a hump in a race or surge to the finish. Retrieving past race experiences can help bring life to the visualization and reinforcement in mental strength if you are drawing on a past performance that saw you crush that final miles.

Rest doesn’t mean doing nothing

Rest doesn’t necessarily mean “full stop” on all activity. Some movement is usually recommended in order to promote circulation. Good options for recovery-inducing activities include swimming, water running, yoga, mobility, and endurance cross-training that doesn’t exacerbate your injury.

Always listen, learn and adjust the plan to accommodate your specific recovery progression and individual goals. Respect pain as a communication tool that your body uses to let you know intervention is needed to avoid or reduce the seriousness of an injury. The key is learning to listen, understand the different types of pain, and accept the reality of your situation so you don’t make it worse.

By combining self-awareness, evidence-based training practices, and a healthy respect for recovery, you’ll not only stay injury-free but also unlock your true performance potential.