A hint of excitement in the air last night thinking about today’s session and some potential pace improvement was soon wiped out on waking when I rolled out of bed this morning. Serious DOMS in my backside from leg work on Monday, namely the lunges. I blasted some heat across my lower body in the shower to try and improve some blood flow which helped, but by the time I had spent the morning sat down at my desk I was fully locked up and not particularly excited about the thought of a speed session.
A full race warm up loosened up the legs and eliminated the soreness, but that became the least of my worries as I set off on rep 1. I went with the target of hitting Saturday’s average of 1.33.6 with the glimmer of hope that I may squeeze an extra 10th. I simply lasted for 3 reps and then cracked in the 4th. To be fair I didn’t crack, I just simply couldn’t hit the split. You know when you just know it’s too much? Into the 4th I was actually just thinking survival mode from 10 strokes in, it was truly horrific, my hardest session to date this season.
However, given how sore and fatigued my legs are from Monday I am particularly pleased with this session to [nearly] match Saturdays pace. The localised fatigue and muscle fibre damage in the legs simply accumulates lactate acid at such a rate it becomes a show stopper. Legs after were in such a poor state I barely made it to the Wattbike to begin the recovery, a complete contrast to the same session, same pace just 3 days earlier.
Regardless of pace I will continue to push with another session this week and then hopefully will start to feel a bit fresher next week with a weights de-load week to finish it off.
4x750m [3r] 1.33.7