Yesterday I did exactly the right thing and listened to my body. I had a hectic day and felt exhausted so opted out and took a rest day. I felt ok with it safe in the knowledge that I had 10 days training in my legs and had hit red days every other day. I got some extra sleep in too which was much needed.
Today it was back on the red for some 500m intervals. Since doing these over the past few week I have had a lot of pain but not much to show for it. Not much to show until today that is when those tough, gruelling, slow intervals came out on the surface to say hello and let me know they have infact been working.
That’s not to say it was easy though, far form it. I set off with a PB in mind but after rep 1 knew I was in for a tough time. I focused on keep the rate up around 2k +2 and the stroke as long and efficient on the legs. The problem was that the legs were biting hard less than half way into the set and the pain was increasing at an alarming rate. Often it is the knowing what is around the corner that hurts more, the thinking “how the hell am I going to do another X amount of these?”
I dug in hard and set myself to see the session out rep by rep. The aim was for 4 consistent reps and then take it from there. I had already played games and said to myself that 4 will do then I am allowed to ease off the throttle and bring the second half home slower. Of course I got to the fifth and said “one more on target and then let it go”.
This routine got me until the penultimate rep when I dug in hard. I dug even harder on the final rep and rode out the first 250m then hit a step test style finish going up every 5 strokes. Needless to say it hurt me a lot and took some time to compose at the finish.
The finishing rep could indicate a bit of laziness in the main group but I can assure you it wasn’t – the joys of a high lactic threshold I suppose. Maybe more to come yet? Wait out.
PB by 0.1/500m
