Thursday, February 17, 2011

Embrace the Pain

Wednesday I embraced the pain. The last few session have been hard and my motivation has been flagging andWednesday was shapping up to the toughest yet. My legs were dead and sore and I was expecting the the workout to be even harder than last week. But, I decided I was going to embrace the pain. As tired as I was, I was not going to let it rule this session. I was going to push hard and break through the pain. I was going to take a Jens Voigt attitude and tell my legs to "Shut Up!". On my way to Mock I cranked Overseer, psyching myself up by listening to the heavy big beats (and frankly getting my face into a good grimace of pain for practice) before the session. As much pain as I was going to experience, it was not going to break me. I was going to embrace it. I was going to revel in it. I was going to crush my pain. AARRGGHHH! 

The boys at Mock did not dissapoint. 4x 2 min overgeared TT @80 rpm, followed by 2x 4min TT@ 90rpm, followed by 5 minutes standing (starting in 53-13, sprinting 10 sec each minute then shifting to a harder gear then backup to 53-13), followed by 5 minutes sitting overgeared (sprintiing 15 seconds every minute) and finishing with 2min ILTs  on each leg.

Joe told us to really hit the second 4 minute interval hard as that was the one that would pay off the most. So I gave it. Focused on two of my goals this year, visualising myself TTing @ 34 kph and/or climbing up and over that cat 2 mountain. I really left nothing on the table and felt good about it. Then he said, "The next interval is really hard too...". I hung my head, dug in and gave it my best shot as well. The climbing out of the saddle was not agonizing but the sprint was, shall I say, lacklustre. But I did give whatever I had and that was an important accomplisnment for this night of embracing the pain.

Oddly, this mantra worked. I'm feeling really good about the workout and I think I learned something new about my abilities tonight. For instance, the climbing out of the saddle interval was actually tolerable and not nearly as dfficult as it was the first time I did it this year. Hmmmmmm.

Distance: 19.62 km
Speed: 17.56 kmh
Cadence: 74 rpm
AVG HR: 160 bpm
Weight: 203 lbs [and dropping :) ]

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