Do any of you share this fear? - Page 2

Perhaps Not

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My Blog

darned google.

How about: Fitness is an Integral. Period. ?

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rmur

I approach intervals and weight training the same way...I try to treat myself like pavlov's (sp?) dog (lol)....You do not want to set yourself up for failure but you do not want to make success too easy...just like the dog you only want to reward him occasionally so he will keep coming back for more...

Meaning do not make the goal too hard or too easy...also I find some of my best workouts happen when I least expect them. I just wake up and feel like it is going to be a normal day and suddenly like the other day I was able to hold 270 watts for 20 minutes...that was a first for me. Same for the weights yesterday, was going light with the legs and just felt good after my first three sets of stiff knee deadlifts which usually the third set was tough at that weight so finally decided lets go for the three plates per side finally and boom ... banged out 5 reps...a new high on that exercise for me...

My warm up usually gives me an idea of the bike or the weights the kind of day I will have than I adjust accordingly...just my 2 cents.

-Js

No - If I am ever riding intervals it is because I have ridden like a man with legs made out of lead in a race and I need "punishment"....

However, I race so often that intervals are usually going to be counter productive anyway - racing 2/3 times a week gives me all the intensity I need.

I think the most important thing is to be "fresh" when you attempt any intense workouts. Before I gave up full time work and went for the classic base training year plan I was doing consecutive indoor sessions of intervals - 2 x 20, 5 x 5 then sprints.

This did suck. I was always sore, and motivation suffered. So I know from experience that if anyone is doing pretty much "all intervals" due to limited time, things might not be fun.

Certainly doing a 5 x 5 the day after a 2 x 20, after a day at the office and hitting your hardest efforts is not for the faint hearted.

Respect that you can push yourself so deep into the hurt box without the motivation of wanting to win, not wanting to be dropped that us racers have.

2 things:

1.) like alot of the other folks have said, if the mentality is why am i out here killing myself...that's usually burnout, and taking a break in intensity can help.

2.) i'm not sure if this is partly where you were going with this, but i get another completely different feeling after intervals that makes me altogether feel like a wimp-waiting to happen: that is, i finish a 1 minute effort and literally feel like i'm going to fall of the bike and asphyxiate. i don't have asthma, but rather, a poor sense of pacing. There have been many times where i go out for 1 minute intervals and i avoid doing them until the last minute b/c i absolutely HATE that feeling. So much so that i'll find excuses not to do them! anything: game day traffic, the sun was in my eyes.

Mike

The above looks like a passage from my last year's training diary . Since this thread seems to deal with feeling and attitude towards training I'd like to reflect on something pertinent that occurred to me only this year. Namely, I no longer consider myself tired if I only feel tired. I consider myself tired only when I can't perform as I expected because of fatigue. I have had quite a few great "tired" workouts since I came to this realization, even "breakthrough" ones.

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Yes, that is an interesting contrast that you make, Piotr, between feeling tired and really being tired. And clearly you can have one without the other, in both directions. In truth, I almost always feel tired prior to going out on the bike. If I let that stop me my bike would never get used. On the other hand, there are those days when I feel tired in a much more bone-deep way, and I've learned to recognize this and respect it - and on those days I give myself permission not to go out, or to go out for just a stroll on the bike.

I'm still not sure about the wisdom of abandoning a planned workout because you discover that it's an off day. I see the argument for doing so. But, to my way of thinking, during a race you're not going to quit no matter what, so I just finish my workout no matter what. I call it "pain practice." On an off day you're going to be in pain but just not going as fast as you hoped. But you're still practicing being in pain, and I think that's valuable in itself.

And despite all I've read in this forum over the past couple of years, and despite my adapting my training because of it to include SST work, I still can't quite convince myself that time spent on the bike (other than warmup and cooldown) where I'm not at least moderately to extremely uncomfortable is doing anything at all to help me in time trials (which is the only racing I do). I'm not at all trying to argue the point. I'm just reporting what my intuition is telling me, and my intuitions are usually pretty good (though, obviously, that in no way counts as evidence).

I sometimes try to get myself pumped up for a hard interval session, and usually end up feeling apprehensive.

It was recomended that I try to "not think about it". Know my sets, plan my route, then go do the work. Don't get hung up on the numbers. Also, finish the sets, even if I have to back off some (unless of course I am truly cooked).

I think that you need to consider what specifically are you afraid of. What makes you stressed about these? I am not a psychologist but I think of these issues as a bit like onions - with layers and layers that you need to peel back to get to the core.You've given us some insight but I think that the hard detective work needs to be done by you. Then, if you feel up to it, you need to come up with a work around.

Back a few years ago I was very focused on TT's and I overdosed on 2x20's, to the point that I started to fear them and I did everything that I could for a couple of years after that to avoid them, which is pretty hard to do when you accept the general higher intensity/less time training paradigm that most of us follow. In any case, I came to realize that my fear ultimately came from the stress I was putting my mind and body thorough for 20 minutes at a time, and really not anything else. So I found ways of getting around that, mostly decreased intensity for longer periods of time or the same intensity broken into smaller periods of time. I would then stitch together the chunks so that I convinced myself that the full effort isn't so bad after all. Nothing revolutionary, but if I hadn't figured out what the core of the problem was it might have been a total waste of time.

Reading this again, I'm wondering if your heart is really into this. You will always be uncomfortable doing this type of training and racing, but you are supposed to get accustomed to it. I don't know if it gets any easier, just more familiar. That the opposite seems to be taking place makes me think that something else is going on. Perhaps some other things in your personal life? Perhaps it's time to take a break until you get your motivation back.

I have this fear too but only when I'm feeling a bit lazy

This morning, I was scheduled to perform at least 1.5 hours of SST ride. I backed out. Why? Because I lacked sleep, my legs are still killing me from the 260 TSS ride I did last saturday (my first time on an a long endurance ride), and my bike is not feeling good too. I just went back to bed and slept some more

My general guideline is, if I'm feeling lazy, that means the ride will suck big time.

Straight up, I literally just bailed on a set of Vo2maxer's (4mins x 6). I was really struggling on the 5th one and I should have known really coz the power dropped off pretty sharpish after the 2nd one. I've been feeling tired for the last few days but I'd had a day off so i thought I'd be ok. Nevermind I'll be back. I find it hard not to worry about a scheduled VO2max workout even though I can usually get through them. 2/3 x 20's are never a problem and SS rides are nearly always a pleasure

Perhaps you weren't too tired, you just didn't have enough base (CTL) to begin VO2max training. 24-25 min at VO2max is a tall order any time of year. I could be wrong, but I brought it up since I believe that was my issue last spring. This year I'm waiting until my CTL is above 85. Also, I found that the day after a day off is rarely the best training day. Just a thought.

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maybe we should declare this the "confession" thread. it's good for the soul I hear

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rmur

Today, I planned on 3 x 25 min @ 95% FTP... I chickened out and did 2 x 25 plus 1 x 10 min @ 100% FTP.

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