I LOVE Coughing Up a Lung

First, I must say that there is nothing like a really hard workout to shake off the mental gremlins and assorted stresses brought about by a rough day at the office (and some personal mental gyrations, bonus!). I was reminded by Collective member (please note we have a newcomer, too--Scott) Brett that Buddha admonishes us to first take care of our OWN enlightenment so that we can help others along. So today I focused on ME (except for having to do my job, but still I was looking out for #1).

Since MY coach decided I'm so freaking awesome for my ability to increase my FT watts so much in so little (relatively) time, of course he is giving me some harder bike workouts. And why not? One of the things I love about this sport is the number of times I get to do something I've never done before. Especially when that thing seems harder than anything I've done in the past. Whenever I do that, I get a little extra burst of adrenaline, a sense of curiousity (how will THAT feel?), a teensy bit of dread (what if I SUCK?), and then ultimately, I dive right in and get it done. And I become a better athlete in the process.

Believe it or not, in the course of my training over the past 3 years especially, I've done things that are harder to me than an actual Ironman race. Based on what, you might ask? Based on how trashed I am afterwards. For example, 2 years ago when I first rode the Horribly Hilly Hundreds 200K ride (link on my sidebar), I felt like I had been run over by the proverbial truck the next day. I haven't felt like that after an Ironman in years. In fact, in 2004 about 1 hour after I'd finished IMC, I'm back in my hotel room packing my bike back in its box, on the phone with a friend, and she reminds me I should drink my Endurox! And the next morning I'm carting my bike and luggage around airports in Penticton and Vancouver like it was just another day.

I did Horribly Hilly last year, and once again, the next day I was pretty wasted. But not as badly as the year before. Why? Because I had learned some important things about how to get through an event like that both with a good time on the clock AND my body not being so beaten up by it. And I went into it fitter than the previous year. This is the cool thing about fitness. It's also why as you move up the echelon of fitness (I think I'm about a 9.5 out of 10, 10 being my maximum potential fitness), that you need to keep upping the ante in order to get benefit AND SPEED. And the more fit you are, the more you have to push the envelope to see gains. It's an interesting game, but one that I'm willing to keep playing for a few years at least. When you just start out and you suck, you can do almost ANYTHING and improve. But if you actually SEEK OUT the improvement, you have to be satisfied with whatever gains you make. This is why whenever I read or hear about someone who consistently does not improve that I question their methods--is that person REALLY doing what it takes? Does that person REALLY realize how much effort you need to put in to make gains?

Now, today's bike workout was certainly not in the category of an Ironman or Horribly Hilly, or Goofy Challenge, and in the big scheme of things, I have never done anything that I remotely consider extreme. I never considered Ironman "extreme." I remember when I first had the thought of doing one that it was something where I knew that if I prepared well in an appropriate timeframe for my then fitness, that I could definitely conquer it. Well, my first few times out, I wouldn't call it exactly "conquering" so much as just finishing. Now I am getting ready to RACE the damn thing! How exciting is that??? My very first coach told me right off the bat that it takes at least 5 years for most people, even very fit, fast people, to RACE an Ironman, meaning you are trying to be in the competitive ranks. I sure hope I'm there now!

Back to today's bike workout. Sorry, I keep getting off track. My main set was: 2x15' (6') at 95-100% of FT watts, 2' easy, then 8' at 105% of FT watts. Holy crap! So on paper, I knew that if I could hit that 105%, it would be something I'd never done before. I've played with the watts at the end of my FT test workouts, but this would be an exercise in sheer will, or so I thought.

I settled in for the first 15' interval, and I actually cut myself some slack today. I decided that since my main concern was to hit the 105% on that last interval, that it would probably be good if I didn't go for the full 100% on the first 2 intervals. So I hit 168 watts, which is 98% of my FT watts now, for both of the 15' intervals. I was totally fine with that, and don't tell my coach but it almost felt EASY.

Thanks to Shelley, I was watching a very nice DVD of the 2005 Hawaii Ironman (Natascha Badmann is my idol), so I was plenty fired up to do some work. But really, when I'm on the trainer, I can't pay attention to whatever I'm running on the DVD player because I need to be so focused, and thankfully, the sessions aren't long enough for me to get bored (Side Note: I have no idea how people can actually watch a movie on the trainer--me--it's heads down in the aerobars staring at my top tube mostly--even for the rare 3-hour trainer ride).

Anyway, I click back into the BCR and start the pain. 105% of my FT watts is 179.6, round to 180. To get an average wattage of 180 for 8' I need to keep my watts (which fluctuate--nobody is THAT good to keep up a single number) OVER 180, more like shoot for 185+. Fuckin' A. Those are HUGE numbers for a yard gnome like me.

But I put the Bitch into the 12 cog and here I go. And I manage to keep my cadence around 90 (it's useless for me to do these intervals at low cadence--there will come a time in my training to do low cadence work, but it's not now!). And my first thought is, "It's only 8 minutes." I mean, what the hell, I can do ANYTHING for 8 minutes, right? So then I think when do I want to check my average watts? Usually I like to look after I'm 1/3 done with an interval, but this is a short interval, so I decide on 5'. Since I keep seeing numbers in the 180's and up, I'm just fine. After the 5' I'm averaging 182, so you know what that means? Come on, I have MORE TO GIVE. So I decide for the last 2 minutes I'm going to hit 200+ watts. What the fuck, I have no idea what that feels like, so I just do it and voila! I ended up averaging 183, which is 107% of my FT watts. But it was only 8 minutes--sheesh, again, DO NOT TELL MY COACH, but I think I could have gone 2' more (I swear if he reads this blog I am a dead woman).

And then I switched back into the SCR to cool down and coughed up a lung. WILLINGLY. It makes me wonder if I'm getting to the point where I can push myself SO HARD in a race that I will finish it (FAST!) and need an IV. I think that would be totally cool. I just hope they tint the saline and/or glucose *PINK*.