The Official Guide to Rating Your Workouts and Races

Some of you who read my blog may be perplexed when I say things like, "I suck," or "my workout was pathetic."  Late last week I was thinking about how I rate myself, and what the full scale would look like so that I could just show it to others.  At first, I came up with this:

I posted it to Facebook, and got some comments, mostly from a guy named Sean, and we came up with some more refinements, and this is what we ended up with:

 

I really like this scale, because 0 corresponds to PATHETIC, and 10 corresponds to MASSIVE PR.  So now you know that when I say my performance was pathetic, that I can't really imagine doing any worse.  If I just sucked, well, it wasn't even OK, but it could have been even worse!

In my day to day training, my intent when executing a workout is to hit at least WELL.  WELL means I feel rested, not too much accumulated fatigue, and I can execute to specs for my current fitness level.  WELL is a 6 on the scale, and even though it's in the middle of the scale, it doesn't mean it's "average."  It's just that I have high standards, and do not adhere to scales where the middle is average.  To me, middle/average would be just OK.  Like I was able to do the workout, maybe I was tired going in, maybe I knew I was underfueled--typically an OK workout/race for me is one where I go in knowing it won't be a spectacular performance, I will get it done, I won't experience a setback by doing it, and I will be all right with my performance.

By comparison, I COULD DO BETTER, would mean that I felt better than on a day where I might just be able to do OK, was expecting to do NOT BAD or even WELL, but I just couldn't cut it.  Maybe I just didn't have my mental mojo dialed in.

Funny thing is that since I came up with this scale, I've been incorporating it into my workout notes.  I think this could serve as a subjective rating scale for Training Peaks!

This scale is pretty much how I think when I'm asked to do a self evaluation at work, and it always perplexes my manager, because to me, doing what I'm capable of doing and doing it well qualifies as WELL, and so on the scale of 1-5, I call that "3."  But I have learned that I should consider where I think I stand compared to others, and I am typically told I'm a 4 or a 5.  That's nice for work, but if every day in training I think I'm at the top of my scale, then what would motivate me to improve?  Nothing.  So I will stick with my 0-10 scale, where 6 is "meeting expectations," more than 6 is fucking fantastic, and less than 6 is not my best work!

Second Indoor Tri--Another Win, but I Still Suck

Yesterday was the second of the 3 indoor tri series races, in Glen Ellyn.  For the 3 days prior, I wasn't feeling right.  Not just my sleep being off kilter (which it still is, but getting better), but I was feeling quite fatigued.  Some of you reading are thinking, "Well, that's what you get for training like a Crackhead" (oh and speaking of crackheads, a famous one just passed away), and that's a true statement, but this is the time of year when I typically catch my annual virus.

I learned another lesson in scheduling my training this past week and that it's tough to cram 11.5 hours of SBR (heavy on the B and R) plus heavy duty strength training into 5 weekdays.  I figured I might pay for it, and on Friday, I curled up in bed with my laptop, as sitting up was just too much effort, even though I swam and ran first thing in the day.

I took my temperature, and it was a normal 97.1, so no fever.  Also no cough, no post-nasal drip, just more than the usual fatigue, and I did feel a little short on breath and that my heart rate just did not want to go anyplace.  No muscle aches, so probably not the flu, no swollen lymph nodes in my throat or neck, so I concluded just some virus plus stupid training tricks.

Side note: there have been a few times when I've felt like this that I've gone to the doctor, and they just about laugh at me.  "Oh--so you're a little tired?"  I've even had them check my lungs, and had her tell me they are just fine, all clear, but I can tell when I'm the least bit "off."

Anyway, on Saturday, I still felt a bit dizzy, but couldn't tell whether it was real or if it was just because I'd lazed around all day Friday and gotten a good night's sleep.  I wasn't sure about getting in my 2:15 ride, but I had to get at it because I'd planned on going TV shopping (I haven't bought a new one in I hate to say it over 20 years, but the old one still works fine and will get moved upstairs now) in the afternoon with my brother Mike.  I decided that I should not try and push it on the bike, but I truly hate so-called "spinning."  It is better for me to just skip a ride than deal with the mental anguish of just ambling.  Seriously!  I can do that for maybe 30 minutes tops.

So I got on the bike, and ambled in the SCR for 30 minutes, and it felt fine, I had good RPM's (in the 100's) and speed (18.5mph), so I switched into the BCR, worked my average mph up to 19, then I went over 20 the next 30 minutes and ended up at 21.2mph for 2:20, not bad for feeling maybe sickly.  I hurried up and showered so I could get to Mike's so we could get to eating lunch!

We ate at Buffalo Wild Wings, and I had a big Leine's, and that was good, but it hit me like I hadn't had a drink in years.  Still, it took the edge off, which helps when I go brick and mortar shopping, because I really don't like doing it.  I'd measured and done some research on TV's for what I needed, and Mike showed me all the ones in his house, which was helpful, and we headed to Sam's to buy.

Despite the fact that I've worked in high tech for like forever, I am typically behind on acquiring technology for myself.  I still don't use a smartphone, I was slow to adopt CD's way back when, and well, the TV thing.  So it was fun to get this done (I got a 42" LCD to be mounted on the wall downstairs where my treadmill and bike trainer are), and now I just need to get my guy to come over and mount the thing.

After I stopped briefly at Mike's to drop him off, I realized I was pretty tired, and went home with the intent to get my grocery shopping done, but truly I was too tired to do it.  So I layed on the couch and read, maybe I napped a bit, and got to sleep early.

Yesterday I woke up after a solid 8 hours of sleep, and felt better than the day before, so I figured it was a go to race.  I even had some adrenaline going, and was excited to see what I was going to be able to do.  But I had a sneaking suspicion that running was not going to be fun.  It's no big deal for me to go hard on a bike with a virus, and even swimming wasn't that bad on Friday, but running not so much.  Still, I warmed up 15' on the treadmill and then 20' on the bike at home, packed up and headed to the race site.

I ran another 5' on the track and biked 10', but only had time for 200 yds. swim warmup and then we were off.  The pool wasn't cold enough for my liking, but I didn't want to push it too much since I knew I was battling something.  I swam 500 yds. in 10 minutes.  Crappy, but no worse than last week, so whatever.

Onto the bike.  My goal was 7.25 miles in 20', and I made 7.2, so that was good.  That was my best ever in these races.  As usual, when I finished, I laid on the floor for about 30 seconds to catch my breath.  I felt pretty wasted, and knew the run was going to suck.

I didn't bother looking at my watch while running, because I didn't want to get depressed.  I managed 8:47 pace, a bit faster than 2 weeks ago, but nowhere near what I am capable of (8:15 would be more like it).  Still, I shouldn't complain, right?  I worked harder on the bike than 2 weeks ago, still ran a bit faster than 2 weeks ago, still handily won my AG and placed decently overall, it was my best score EVER in these races over the last 5 years, so what the fuck am I pissed off for?  Because I need to get on my running.  This is what 2 years of not running fast did to me.  But I think I can get it back in the next few months.  Maybe it's just my top-end speed that is off, though, as I've had some good long runs and ran decent paces for my 55th birthday week festival, so maybe there's hope for me!

But hope is not going to make me faster, so it's nose to the grindstone this week.  While I feel like I've purged the virus from my system (but it's replaced today by a hangover achieved by just 3 beers after I puked my guts out right after I finished racing yesterday!), I will need to train cautiously today and maybe not do 3 hours!  We will see what I can manage on Wednesday when I do my first formal track session.