I wrote on the Q-Power forum ‘there are no words to describe this’, that was nearly 6 hours ago. Now with my quads suffering the dull ache and my inter costal muscles aching with every twist and turn I shall attempt to blog this one.
Arguably the most painful of all the red speed sessions to date this season (I am sure I say that every time!). I spent the afternoon asking myself shall I, shan’t I? Although my training volume is some way off what other QP team mates are training, with a hectic home life, long commute, busy work and a some sleep deprivation, today I was knackered. Yesterdays I had opted for a simple 10km UT2, but even that was a drag and the EPOC was a little higher than I had hoped for.
That and the anticipation that these red sessions bring meant a delayed process of getting to the gym. I finally made the call and headed in around 4pm and got straight into the 5km warm up. By far the best and most comfortable warm up of the season with a comfortable, powerful leg drive and fast hands I was feeling good – oh no that means one thing – bad session inbound, but today that rule was broken.
All alone setting up for the classic 8x500m I wished I was typing something else in to the PM3 like 3x6km but looking under favourites there it was staring at me with the other classic red piece, the 4×750 – why are these under the favourites option on my log card? There is simply nothing favourite about them!
Hitting the first few strokes I had already made up my mind – target average PB pace, be brave and see what happens. -Q- had made it clear that the next few red sessions were to be full throttle to the floor and don’t let up, then of course let nature do it’s work.
I went off above pace to gain an advantage on the average split (yea right – It just means the lactic gates are opened earlier and the dealing with it starts sooner). Reps 2-5 were a case of holding what felt like the edge with the lactic topping up a bit more each time and then dispersing slower and slower. Even with the legs (quads) taking the hit the breathing was acceptable (just) and I was enjoying light handle pressure in the final few inches of the stroke, real finger tip stuff and was quite noticeable. This was good as I wanted to keep the pressure on the larger leg muscles for as long as possible but come rep 6 it was becoming unbearable especially when I pushed it on in the final 150m to nick a lower split.
What happened in rep 7 stays in rep 7! I made an impulse decision and it just happened without any thought or planning. I was hurting bad as I hit 250m and with complete disregard to the 8th rep I thought ‘f*** it, I’m going to bury this like it is the last rep and then deal with the future when it comes’. With that I upped the rate and drove it home with arms and all. (Like I said what happens in rep 7, stays in rep 7!!).
The next 90 seconds rest flew past as I withered around in pain. The leg pain was insane and on flopping I looked up on the monitor to see just 45 secs rest remaining. All I could think about was how to remove the lactic form my legs in 45 seconds so tried to keep the leg drive motion moving the best I could.
No time for ‘I can’t’ or ‘I won’t’ it was time to deal with it and set off out the blocks but with simply no power this time as I watched the metres creep by. I tried to take the rate up again each 10 but legs were now gone, I gave it everything and crossed the line like I would want to do a 2k i.e. slowing down, not accelerating. Now the fun begins….
As I tried to control the breathing all I am thinking is ‘how am I going to remove this leg pain?’ Stumbling towards the door aided by various bits of CV kit along the way I made it to a fence and marched on the spot (sort of).
Back to check the average split and delighted to break the 1.31 barrier with a new PB and then onto the bike for 15 minutes flushing.
Tomorrow is another day, another early start teaching and will probably deviate from the programme once more with just a 10km UT2.
2 more reds to go, who would voluntarily choose to do this to themselves?!
Until next time …..
