Today I needed to find the fine line between a suicide run and an incredibly hard session.
After family calls and a missed days training yesterday I was in the mood to do some damage. I had considered aiming for my 12 month old PB of 1.31.2 for the session and with the team results coming in last night (feeling very agitated from missing the day) I decided on a target before heading to bed.
The plan was to go out for 2 reps around 1.31.4 ish and then look to wind it in and hopefully nick a PB. However after some pondering this morning I decided I was feeling tough and wanted to test my resolve. I decided to take it up a notch and slightly over pace the first rep, flood my body with lactic acid and then attempt to cope with it and see what happens rep by rep.
Setting off I held a 1.31 target split and applied pressure in the last 200m to start the lactic symptoms rolling. Rep 2 pace was dropped but I kept the pressure on refusing to accept a too low split. Rep 3 was tough and I mean tough. Psychological too knowing there was 1 more rep to go as I held on in to the last 200m and then began a ‘suicidal’ squeeze. This squeeze left me in a spot of bother as my forearms were locking and the lactic spread to the throat and my jaw. The final 3 minute rest period came and went in the blink of an eye as I attempted to keep moving and flush. Into the 4th and final rep I had to drop the initial pace and aimed for the 500m to go marker. From here it was 5 sets of 10 and try and lift each time. To be honest the lift didn’t come until 200m remaining and then gave it stacks much to the protesting of my quads, arms, and head.
Such a nasty feeling, just unexplainable unless you have been there. It was important for me to complete today as I had planned as I feel I had lost my mental edge over the past few months. That ability to stay strong and really bury it even with XXX metres showing on the board. I did that well today and gained some invaluable ‘special place’ points – somewhere I have not been for some time. Another important one for me was no HD demons just determination to see it out. (If I am honest after the 3rd rep I did ask “how am I going to do this next one?” But at least it was ‘how’ and not ‘I won’t’).
A long recovery (another good rehearsal) with some walking and rowing to attempt to come back to earth. It’s just another day training at Q-Power.