Whenever I head out to do an interval session, I'm apprehensive. First, knowing that I'm about to be extremely uncomfortable is not a real settling thought. But the main thing is that I'm always a little afraid that sometime during the workout, while forcing myself to ride through the pain, I'm just going to break and say "screw it, I don't need to be doing this" and just abandon the workout. And I know that if I ever do that, I might not ever be able to resume again with the same intensity or commitment. And that would spell the end of my competitive bike riding. Does anyone else relate to this, or am I just a wimp-waiting-to-happen?

Pendejo, aren't you a recreational racer? If so, doesn't that mean you compete for fun and fitness? I don't know what kind of pain you've prescribed for yourself, but perhaps you're hurting yourself a lot more than necessary for results. Sounds like you've come up with a life-or-death challenge workout; that's not training in my book. I doubt if a competent coach prescribed these painful intervals.

Believe the best way to get over your fears is just to abandon your interval whenever you feel like you've had enough. You'll soon learn that nothing bad happens; in fact, you might find that by backing off, you're racing faster and enjoying it a lot more.

I can relate. I usually feel like that more when I'm experiencing stress or pressure unrelated to cycling. It makes me not want to go out and bust ass on the bike, but I also don't want to throw away months of training just because something pops up at work in the weeks before a big race, so there's a conundrum.

After a couple hard intervals, I've either worked through the anxiety, or I'll cut it short and just ride some SST until the fun comes back. Fortunately, there are usually at least a couple days when I feel like tearing it up, so if I'm having a bad day then I'll just hit the sweet spot and save the intervals for tomorrow.

There have been rare occasions where I've realized 'this workout is just not going to happen' and just stepped off the bike, but I've always been able to get back on within a couple days. I just like riding fast and being a strong rider.

If you mean L5 5x5s then yes I avoid them I haven't even completed a 5x5 yet because I ussually feel like I'm going to barf at that intensity/duration.... not fun.

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Just happened to me the other day. I look at it as having reached my personal quota of L6 training. Also I'm coming up on my season goal events and I'm getting pre-race jitters already. I'll just have to switch to something easier for a time and then go back it at the appropriate time. Nothing to worry about. There's no need to torture yourself, really.

+1 on this advice. Go hard when you feel strong and drop back to SST when you need a mental or physical refresher. I've pulled myself back from the brink of burnout at least three times this season by dropping back into SST and CTL building. Each time I've come back fitter and psyched to ride and race.

-Dave

I have that feeling when going out to do intervals.
I just want them to be over so that I can say I've done it.
Before that, there is a fear and trepidation of what's to come.
I actually prefer 5x5's or 4x5's cos it means that it's all over a lot quicker than 2x20, say.
I use the word 'prefer' advisedly, though.

I feel I'm constantly on the verge of saying 'that's it...I've had enough'

So, yes, I indentify.

Though I'm just starting to ride, at one time I was involved in competitive road racing - running of course. I'm finding my background in that sport to be invaluable when it comes to the transition I'm making. Why? One thing I had when I was racing was a great coach who could tell when to push the individual or team & when to ease off. Above his ability to motivate, he was even better at preparing his athletes mental state, disecting it and finding how to get the most out of you.

The first thing I noticed when I began cycling this summer was that I still had a certain drive for racing. Not really racing, but against the clock / myself. I think that coach is still sitting on my shoulder ;-) At times that would make me nervous in exactly the same situation you were discussing, when I knew I wanted to put forth some target in training either in time or in climbing a particular hill x number of times. I found myself pacing around my kitchen one night after a lousy day, knowing I didn't want to go hard that night. I then realized that I was kind of sabotaging my ride a bit. At that point I realized two things that helped me out:

a.) If it's that far into your head, maybe you shouldn't do that workout on that day.

b.) I found this to be more important - Back in the day I remembered a conversation I had with my coach about pre-race / hard workout anxiety. As always we talked about it a bit and he had some very sound advice.

His philosophy was this:
You don't naturally get ready for something so mentally taxing. His advice was to do an extended warm up at a slightly lower pace than usual just to get the endorphines running. By doing this, you give your body and brain additonional time to work out the negative thoughts / crap that has been stored up all day / the fact you didn't sleep well, whatever! Only after that period of time / warm up will you truly know if you are prepared for your intended workout / race. In other words, put your mind in a similar place to where you are after having a good workout. You don't need to roll up your pant legs until you get to the water, so don't!

If that doesn't work, start the workout slow and see if you can build your way into it.

I can't say that it always works. However, I bet more often than not you will find that getting on the bike and just turning the wheels for a few extra warm up minutes will help you to settle down a bit. Thus, more often than not you will find yourself feeling as if that day might be a better day for that workout you were targeting.

Of course, if it's not your day, it's not your day. Pushing yourself through a workout you can't handle mentally may be worst in the long run than pushing yourself through something that you can't handle physically. Remember, the mind is as important as the body in creating a stong athlete!

Well, I hope you get something out of that. It's helped me through the years.

Dave

I rather like training, whether intervals or tests, but I do get apprehensive before races. Even to a point where I'll decide to skip a race, because I'm just too nervous about it and no longer enjoying the cycling experience. Maybe I'm just a poser .

I've got a 95-miler coming this weekend. I still haven't decided if I want to do it. That would be my longest race ever. Incidentally, I did fairly well in my previous longest race, but the apprehension remains.

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Are your intervals to hard?

A couple of times I have gone out for a hard interval day with a moderate amount of anxiety. For the same reasons I suppose - knowing what I am about to do to my body. A longer warm-up is helpful.

My real anxiety comes into play on race day (even a few days before sometimes). Race day nerves have nearly gotten the better of me a time or two.

Something I have found true with both big interval days and race days alike is that once the warm-up is done and the work begins I shed the nerves and get down to business. I could speculate as to why (concentrating on moving up, finding a good break, avoiding crashes, etc), but ultimately the more I have experienced the nerves pre-event and the subsequent calming of those nerves during the event, the easier it has become to overcome the nerves pre-event.

It seems that having a bit of anxiety has been helpful for my results. My flatest efforts have inevitably come from the days when my nerves were almost or completely non-existent. I used to hope the anxiety would go away. Now I hope it shows up.

Very interesting replies, guys, thanks for posting. It's comforting to know I'm not the only one who experiences this.

I think most people experience your anxiety. The hard part is to be able to decide when you are being too soft or when you do really need a break, mentally and physically.

I not so long ago posted the following in the killing me thread:

With all due respect Pendejo, your approach is a negative one. Instead of telling yourself (or thinking) that you may never be able to do the intervals again with the same intensity, tell yourself you're going to come back as strong if not stronger after a rest which your body is telling you that you need. I think someone of 65 is more than qualified to say, "What the hell am I doing this for, when I could be playing Gateball (Japanese version of croquet) with all the old fogeys in the park" ?
Next time you feel the way you do above, remember me and say to yourself, "I'll show that bloody old fool Tyson"!!

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interesting thread and some good thoughts on there - especially perhaps as we're (in the NH) approaching the last half of winter and folks are probably ramping up the harder threshold (and above) work with a view to spring racing or simply competitive group rides.

I know that when i'm approaching or exceeding PB power levels for my key workouts (mostly threshold with a dash of L5), that I often feel apprehensive about them. Usually however, getting on the trainer is the very hardest part: once you've done a reasonable warmup and the legs are 'there' well you might as well carry on with the workout eh?

Taking a bigger picture approach, I have to say that overall I'm less concerned about how poorly (or really how well) any SINGLE workout goes. When the PMC tools became available, I realized that the minute details of most workouts were just that: minute details! That sounds pretty obvious but I guess we can become too obsessed with the perfect workout or the perfect interval or perfect pacing etc. while missing the forest. CTL was a tremendous, eye-opener for me.

Back in the 'dark ages', I admit I sometimes skipped a workout or added an extra rest day when my legs weren't feeling great. I was very focused on making/improving power-duration and if the legs weren't 'right' I'd bail. Retrospectively (!), in 2004 in particular that thinking lead me to a pre-season CTL around 70. I ended up with some decent results and decent 20-30MP but, relative to my norms, I had no endurance. The season turned into a slow fade ....

I know it's perhaps an overt simplification but I believe just focusing on CTL and FTP can lessen the stress during the long pre-season build. If I feel poorly after a solid warmup, I'll (as others have suggested) dial the power back to mid-tempo and treat it like my std. Friday workout (about 1-hr core mid-tempo, never hard, never long). That way including wu and cd, I'll still get in 60-70 TSS which is a useful daily load while still not that tiring.

Tomorrow is another day and what really matters is the training load for the week, for the month, for the season, for the year ... not whether or not I did 150 Tss vs. 60 on any particular day.

Fitness is an Integral. Can I trademark that one?

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rmur