Three weeks into my training season and I can say that I've had my first AH-HA! moment (I hope Oprah didn't trademark that)
Every base season, I struggle with the idea of "easy". Being a back of the packer, "easy" often means walking or spinning away and huffing at 12.5 miles/hour. Over the past three of my "athletic years" I have struggled coming out of the off season and my first week of training is a walk and barely a ride. It was the right thing however for where I was at. I typically ignored the right thing and I plowed into training, strapping my garmin on from my very first run and obsessing over my pace. OK so we all know how that turns out. I fry myself, get injured, or work harder to make less gains. It's also important to note that each of my previous off seasons have been twice as long (like nothing from November to February) and I typically gain 10 pounds (on top of the extra 25 I've held on to forever). You can just imagine the disaster and disappointment that made up my base seasons of yester-year.
This year is decidedly different for me. First, my off season was only 4 weeks and I threw in a few unscheduled workouts during that time. Second, instead of gaining 10, I lost 20. I also set myself up for a great season with high expectations and a good mindset. This year I have yet to take my garmin out of the drawer. All of my training to this point has been by feel. I've walked a little, i've eased up on the gearing if I needed to, held back on the wall an extra 10 sec if necessary. Some days I have virtually fallen asleep at the dinner table. Even though I think I am on the right track, I really miss the sense of progress and feedback you get from the pace/HR monitor. Today was an AH-HA for me and it came in the form of a brick.
I was scheduled for an ez 45 minute ride followed by an ez 15 minute run. It was freezing cold this morning and I am a total sissy, so I opted for a 6:30 spin class and the treadmill. I have been doing all of my riding at home on the trainer using the spinerveral DVD's. Most of them have been pretty tough, strength focused workouts. I work through them, burning my legs longer than my lungs.
I got to spin class with good energy. The class was very aerobic, lots of out of the saddle, high spinning, only a few climbs in the seat. I was going to stop at 45 minutes, but I felt really, really great and hung in for the full 60 (65 with my warm up). I worked up a sweat and put in a solid effort. I got right off and hopped on a treadmill in the adjacent room. Started at a very conservative 11:00/mile. My legs felt great. I started to increase the speed every minute until I topped out at 9:20/mile and ended my 15 minutes actually wishing I could go longer! It was like an early season win. AH-HA! Base training does work!
Check out http://noslackers.blogspot.com/ and post your AH-HA workouts to comments!
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2 comments:
I hear ya.
It is tough feeling like it is a real workout if you don't feel like you got your ass kicked by the end of it.
I'm trying to force my own "ah ha" moment. I'll let you know how it goes. :-)
It IS hard to do base training. But as you have seen it pays off. Its a wonder when you have given your body the time it needs to adjust to training. Great job!
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