Work vs. Fun

I must be recovered from the 1/2 IM, and from all the yard work I've been piling on the last few weekends, as today I nailed my bike workout the way I'm supposed to.

It was this workout: 15' wup, 3' spinups, 3x(2'Z3, 1' CD), 3x8' (2') FT, cd 5', 8 x 30/30's, cd 7'

I figured I'd be prepared to hit the FT stuff dead on today, since I was extra careful to hold myself back while running yesterday. OK, let me back up. Sunday I ran 13.2 (possibly more) miles in 2 hours. I had done a 1:40 long run the Sunday before, and the week before that was Miami Man 1/2 IM. So that's pretty fast to ramp back up to a 2 hour long run. I increased my total training hours to 15 from just shy of 10 the week prior, which is not something I'd recommend to someone else, but I had "extra" recovery in that I did not work on Thursday or Friday (or Wednesday afternoon, thanks to an early dismissal by my manager). Plus, I know myself pretty well and have made volume jumps like that before, so I figured I'd be OK. I've increased my strength training a bit, and am back on my periodized regime that will get harder soon enough. My bike workouts have sucked donkey balls the last 2 weeks, because I have let them. Saturday I didn't get on my bike until after I had already swum and then raked for 3.5 hours. I had decent power, but not as much as I'd like. I was fried. And I had considered running afterwards, too, but wisely dismissed that idea, thinking that maybe I'd be able to run 2 hours on Sunday rather than my planned 1:50. The ride I did on Thanksgiving was preceded by a 5K race plus about 3 miles of warmup and cooldown, and my legs were toast when I got on the trainer (but not too badly toasted as I still managed to get in a decent TSS/IF for the ride).

So now back to yesterday. I was sufficiently tired after my long run on Sunday, but managed to do another 2 hours of yard cleanup (cutting down and covering 17 rose bushes and removing assorted perennial plant debris) to complete shelling myself for the week. Yesterday I had a swim and run on my schedule--I've been self-coached for a few weeks, no worries, and my goal for this week is to bring up my running to 5.5 or more hours, and to get back on my bike workouts. I could tell yesterday morning that I was expectedly fried, and now I know that when I really do not want to do a workout it probably means I am pretty tired. But I figured some time in the pool would be good for recovery, so I went anyway, and held myself to 2500 yards, mostly easy stuff with a good dose of drills. Side note: This fall I have taken to bringing a commuter mug full of coffee with me to the pool rather than Gatorade or water. I LOVE MY COFFEE! After the swim, I was still tired, but wanted to get outside and run while the weather was still good (it's been near 60 here for 5 days). When I began running, my legs didn't feel so much muscularly tired, but just this general fatigue of having ramped up my training. I told myself I could turn around and go home and skip the workout, but I've been in this position before, and knew that I would feel great the next day as long as I held the intensity down. So on I ran, and I had to force myself to take walking breaks to keep my pace low.

When I finished working yesterday, I even managed to do :34 of abs/core work. I didn't want to have to do my full strength routine today so that I could have a good bike workout. I finished up with a good :35 of stretching and called it a day.

I slept 10 hours last night--usually I let myself stay up a little later on Mondays because I don't have to get up to swim, but right after 8:30PM last night, my body was saying lights out, so I did. I felt really refreshed this morning, and knew I had done the right thing by going ahead and getting in that run workout yesterday.

I was going to ride outside today, as the weather is still good, but it was raining a bit, and something told me I didn't want to go all rooster tail on wet roads, and my outdoor hoses are put away for the winter, and I didn't want to have to wash my bike! So I put my Bitch back on the trainer (I did ride outside on Saturday, which was a total treat--at one point I had some dork sucking my wheel after I passed him, which didn't bother me one bit) and got ready to rock 'n roll.

Right away I could tell I had "legs" today. I was able to generate good power in a low gear during warmup, and as I moved up to the Z3 stuff (which is basically HIM range), things felt great. I looked at the SRM and had a chuckle, because the power I was putting out was near my FT power just a year ago! How f'in cool is that?

I started on the first FT interval, and I knew I could hold it for 8 minutes. 8 minutes doesn't sound like a long time, but when you're on a trainer and there's no terrain or wind or just air, it requires focus. It's WORK. I got this perverse smile on my face remembering that I need to just settle in and do the WORK. It's not fun, but I don't expect it to be fun. In a flash, I realized I was recovered from the 1/2 IM and that I was ready to do some serious WORK, not just today, but for this new training season. How many of my 2005-2006 training season bike workouts were like this? At least 95%. So they were all tons of WORK. But I could see before me in plain numbers how all my hard work has paid off. Sheesh, the numbers on the SRM were things I only DREAMED about a year ago. Hell, being able to run 13 miles in 2 hours in a TRAINING RUN was not something I had thought I'd be able to do a year ago, either. My running improvements have also come at the expense (or as I think of it, pleasure) of lots of hard WORK.

I also had the flash today of that adage, "the training doesn't become easier--you just get faster." SHIT YEAH!!! So I did the same workout today (or close to it) a year ago with almost 30 less watts on the meter, but it's just as hard now as it was then, only now I go faster. There will come a time when the work will only get me to maintaining speed or even some decline, but I'll know when I'm there, and I ain't there yet.

What about FUN? To me, it's not so much about FUN, as it is about the realization of the fruits of the WORK that I enjoy. Do I enjoy the WORK? Yes, because I know that my gratification will surely come. The FUN happens because of spurious details like wearing eye-catching clothing while training or racing, or being able to be light-hearted at points during training or racing when I'm already dialed into my effort level. To me, fun is an emotion that can be present during hard work, but I don't feel at all compelled to experience "fun-ness" in order to enjoy something. I am puzzled by someone who says they are racing to "have fun." Fun is jumping around in a huge container filled with bouncy balls. It does not require you to be engaged or make much of an effort. Racing is work, and sure it can be pleasurable, but I tend to put it into perspective and believe that if I am executing the way I should, then that's plenty of enjoyment for me. I have the same view of training. If you don't view training as WORK, then how will you be 100% engaged during racing when it's all about the WORK?

As my coach likes to say, "Work is speed entering the body." I am back on my game, and I'm ready for some serious work. Last season is so OVER. It's time for me to get faster and stronger. I feel like I've got that spark back that I had last fall when I had decided that changes were in order. Those changes worked like a charm, and I've added some new challenges for myself this year, and I'm ready to go to WORK. I better be, because I have another marathon in 6 weeks that I want to PR at!