Avoid injury!
If you get injured your miss training, if you miss training your performance doesn't progress the way you had planned, the people you may be racing against have got quicker. While being laid up you are losing muscle tone and so on so not only are you not improving, you are going backwards.
For some people, as they get older they get injured more easily and it takes longer to recovery, so worth taking even more care.
So it is well worth focusing on this area - top tip, avoid injury.