The Law of Negative Returns

So what is this Law of negative returns? For me it's when you feel so crummy on the bike that all ride plans are tossed out the window and you just go home. I'm sure we have all started a ride and thought, man I feel terrible and the legs just won't go. And we all stick it out for a while, but at what point do you pull the plug and go home? Bottom line, when the training ride becomes less than a ride and does more damage than good both mentally and physically. This weekend I really wanted to get out for some longer training rides since I took a few days off midweek to recover from the Colorado trip but it was not to be. Saturday I started off well but half way into my planned ride I started to feel the power loss and a short time later I was in trouble. I thought I might be delirious as I rolled into a small town and saw this sign.
I thought I was back in Cleveland Ohio until I saw the population. There's just a few more people in Ohio but it looks like they are adding all the time here in Missouri. So I ride on and as I'm stopped at an intersection trying to decide if I should turn for home or carry on a chubby old guy rolls by me at 10 mph and tells me to jump on. Hmmmmmm, time to bag it as I don't think I can hold his wheel. 7 bottles later I arrived back at home barely able to pedal. Sunday was just more of the same but I was smart enough to call it a day way before I got myself in trouble.
So the law of negative returns was in full effect for me this weekend. I'm usually pretty good at going home early if I'm not riding well enough to call it training but Saturday I didn't and that did the damage for Sunday.
So now I'm off to see if I can hurt myself on the backyard slip-n-slide. If you see me with skid marks on my arms and grass sticking out of my ears you know I overshot the end of the slide.