Fitness blah-g

[threadwalker]

17 days to next race. 10 days to training taper.

I am not comfortable with my physical readiness state. However, I think I have a good cardio base, seasoned mental stamina, and buckets of will power.

I predict
- I'll finish
- I'll run the entire 10K
- I will be utterly exhausted when I'm done

But I'm okay with that. I'm a little panicky because I haven't 'mocked' it up so I don't really "know" I can do this. Because of that I'm not really 100% sure my run WON'T look like a fast stumble. But I'm okay with that, too; as long as I "think" it's running, it's running.

I'm very excited, though.

Training Notes
My comfortable run-training is Tempo-training; I am happy when I decide to run for 75 minutes and use that time to fiddle with my pace and form; I am not comfortable doing sprints because even though it's been proven by experts that people improve their pace with it, I feel like I am wasting my time.

I've had this mental tug-of-war over my training and correctly identified that I needed to increase my duration of run/bike, but I never switched out of that mode to developing my speed even though I have resources that explain I need to switch. The key is that most speed work is done with sprints and intervals and I've always hated sprints. Yesterday I reread an article about how we need to step out of our comfort zone and address our weaknesses instead of exclusively working on our strengths, which struck a chord with me. I think there are a lot of places in my life where I am constantly playing to my strengths instead of working on my weaknesses; it's mental laziness, it's easy, it doesn't require me to make new plans. Therefore, I've stepped out of my training comfort zone, I've firmly told myself to have faith in the cardio base and will power that got me to the top of Mt Diablo, and between now and the race my focus is going to be speed work on bike and run; there will be only 1 long ride and 2 tempo runs between now and the race. There will also be no more Mt Diablo climbs even if it calls to me.

So far it's been a hard switch to follow-through on because up until I'm sprinting, there's a voice in my head trying to convince me to change the plan. I think that change is hard and on top of that, since I'm so results-driven and I am really not sure that there will be any benefit to my race in 2 weeks, it's hard to make myself believe this is a good change. However, I'm starting to map out my off-season training and speed work will need to be part of that, so I'm looking at the long term benefits of getting used to speedwork now instead of never.

P.S. No sewing last night. Life is what you experience when you are making other plans. Sometimes it's a victory just getting the basics taken care of and I'm always very grateful for managing the basics; the rest is frosting on the cake and I'm not supposed to be eating carbs. So I'm borrowing everything I can and winging it.

Comments

[nightbocci.livejournal.com]

When I was doing triathlon training, one of the speed workouts I found to be helpful--and even enjoyable--was the one my trainer referred to as the "Lamppost Workout." We often ran along the Embarcadero in SF, which has a series of more-or-less regularly spaced lampposts. The workout involves jogging to the 1st lamppost, running to the 2nd, then sprinting to the 3rd--and repeating the cycle. (Amazingly, you cover a lot of ground rather quickly because it always seemed like the sprint sections were the ones that were missing one or two lampposts!) The workout stays interesting because your brain becomes more occupied with looking ahead to the next landmarks and determining what pace you will need to run between them, than it does with worrying about when you will be done.

This same concept can be applied to hill workouts or even to cycling. (And, for someone who is just start out, you can add a "walk" section after the "sprint" section.)

It worked for me!

[j-i-m-r.livejournal.com]

Those lampposts are for me to weave between as I bike along the Embarcadero :-)

[d-salie.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the delay, I have pirate stuff, but we're leaving tonite! Want me to leave on the porch?