Rethink

I've looked over my last few weeks of training. In my posts a few phrases stood out to me, signaling I should check on how the experiment is travelling.


"Now I feel as if I have passed the novelty stage of the different style of training"


Have the initial benefits been simply a result of just doing something different?

"Time for a bit of a rethink"


Self explanatory. It's been long enough to see what I am getting out of it.

"From a training and racing perspective my main goal is to get the most out of a limited time commitment."

Keeping the time capped at 6-10 hours per week. I need to make sure I am getting the biggest bang for my buck. I need to keep out the junk training.



"Something more directed is needed to stop me from losing motivation, slacking off or not getting enough out of training."



I have noticed with the random nature of my recent training there is a tendancy to fall back to a moderate intensity. It is my personality. Through all areas of my life I have needed direction, something to work towards. I need to see the steps ahead of me.




"Instead of working towards one big race, I simply aim to work on an ever increasing fitness and performance level. A level that I can race off at short notice. Mixed into all of this I also wish to enhance other areas of fitness. Move away a bit from the specificity of my previous training."

While I need a direction, there has to be room for variety. An ever increasing performance level is a goal itself. It just needs some refining.


"My current endurance limit is around 17km"

Without the work, the limits reduce. I can't simply hang on to the fact that I put in a couple of months of Ironman training earlier this year.

"The training should enhance my life."



Training shouldn't be a chore. It shouldn't take over or take away from the rest of my life. It has to make life better.

Comments

  1. Tea29 June 2008 at 05:05

    The last two sentences said it all. Balance can be hard to find, whether it's balancing training and life or intensity and rest. Just because things worked before doesnt' mean they'll work again. That's part of the puzzle.

    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