Soft

Sometimes I wonder if I'm getting soft when it comes to training as I get older. Over the last couple of years I definitely haven't put in as many long hard sessions as I used to. I no longer just keep plugging out hard days after hard days. I now find it much easier to call it a day when I'm not feeling great. Maybe I'm getting soft, maybe I'm learning from past mistakes or maybe training is just no longer the overall focus of my life.

I'm happy with the fact training and racing isn't the only thing my life revolves around, that would be unhealthy since I don't make a living out of it. In fact, racing drains the bank balance. I'm also happy with the fact I think I have learnt from some past mistakes. I have overtrained myself pretty seriously in my earlier days to such an extent it took months to recover from. I'm also happy that I have more experience and knowledge and therefore in theory have a better understanding of how my body responds to training, so I can get more bang for my buck. What is bugging me is I've noticed I don't seem to be experiencing the same levels of pain in training that I used to.


This lack of pain has been playing on my mind today. Now most of my training days feel almost easy. It's not because I am fitter, currently I am still a long way behind where I was two years ago. I think I am performing most of them within my current capabilities and not pushing the envelope as hard. I am hoping it is just training smarter, but I am wondering if I am just using that as an excuse not to train as hard.


Looking back at my last few races I know I definitely gave them all I had on the day. I definitely remembered how to hurt myself during them. I also showed some good improvement from the start of this year so I have been doing something right. It's has been a long time since I have completed an interval session that has seen me revisit my breakfast. This is probably a good thing, maybe the fact it has been playing on my mind is enough to keep me honest and hurt myself when it is necessary.

My main concern is because I am not experiencing the same level of pain and fatigue that I used to, I'm worried I am losing the ability to really push myself. When it comes to performing at the Ironman, fitness can only take you so far on the day. It is an event that causes a unique and intense pain that lasts for hours. To perform well you have to push past pain and many of the body's defence mechanisms. It is not a day to be soft.

"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe." - Anatole France

Comments

  1. Ewen6 August 2007 at 15:09

    I can't offer any suggestions about dealing with IM pain Jason. It's probably an 'on the day' thing, and mainly mental rather than physical.

    I reckon you probably are training smarter. I wouldn't have thought that painful anaerobic interval sessions do much at all for IM-type fitness - at least in running and biking.

    Isn't the big pain from the fatigue of going long? The all-day rides? 35km runs?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tea8 August 2007 at 11:32

    You have alot more experience than I do, but I'm going through the same thing. If nothing else, your post helped me understand a few things about my own training.

    thank-you for posting it.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sandy Point Half Marathon

Image
Any race that uses a picture of myself as promotion makes me think I should compete in it. Wouldn't want to disappoint the masses. Last year my race slow and cold over the same course. A time of 1:30:20, was disappointing and a kick up the backside to get to what really works in training. Since then I have put in a lot of consistent kilometres and have seen some improvement. I was definitely going to race faster this year. Based on my race results over the last few months the hope was to see if I could get down to near 1:24:xx. The weather was very different this year. Far from cold, in fact I think it was our warmest night in a few months. However, there was a Damaging Winds warning issued, with predictions of 65km/hr gales to slow things downs a bit. The winds hit, according to the weather sites: NNE averaging around 50km/hr with gusts of 76km/hr. That made for some interesting race tactics. Luckily the rain held off until after the race. For some reason I felt ready with only 1...
Read more

Fitting Together

It's interesting how easy it suddenly becomes to prioritise aspects of life. I have missed plenty of training in the last week, but for the first time in my life, it really, and I mean really doesn't matter. That's not to say I am throwing training on the back burner. Far from it. Of course I am finding it hard working out how life now all fits together, but I am thoroughly enjoying the process. Training is now just part of the puzzle. What was a very easy load a couple of weeks ago, is now just manageable. This is what I anticipated. As things settle down and I work out of few things the training load should again become much easier. At the moment it looks like I will be able to get in all the key sessions, so in reality it is going fine.
Read more

The Gorge

For work I am currently stationed away from my normal branch. This is a recent roster change that I am not too happy about due to a number of reasons that I won't go into here. The good thing is that it gives me different roads to ride on when commuting. Nothing like a bit of variety to break things up. One particular bit of terrain that I now get to cover is known as the Gorge. It is exactly as the name suggests. The road that takes you into the Gorge is simple. One side is a very wide bend, that could almost be thought of as a straight road. The other side involves a couple of reasonable bends, which wouldn't normally be an issue, but can be when hitting speeds of 60km/hr on the descent. I want to make it clear that the Gorge is far from the toughest of climbs, while quite steep on both sides it is relatively short. So what is it about the Gorge. For me it has provided a good bench mark for my cycling fitness. Back when I first started on the bike it took all my ef...
Read more