Athlete Blogs
June 6th, 2009Training the Mind
I have come to the conclusion this season that my body will pretty much do whatever I tell it too (w/in reason). What that means to me is most workouts are really training the mind - the motivation, will, determination to push through pain and discomfort. The body can handle quite a bit, if you are following a well thought out plan there should be few times where you completely fall apart in a workout. It may be uncomfortable, unpleasant, downright painful as hell - but the legs can handle it, the question is, can your mind?It's all too easy to rationalize quitting early, skipping intervals and "just riding" but none of that crap is acceptable if you want to be the best. Hell, 75% of the guys you line up against every weekend probably have never done a single 20 min interval in their life, let alone doing them day in day out. There is nothing wrong with that at all - but those who win, who win the most often are those who can endure suffering the longest. In training and in racing. It can take many forms, personally I'd die of boredom if I had to ride 5 hrs every day - that is true suffering for me. I'd rather ride 2 hrs chock full of intervals and be done with it.
Most workouts except for very short intervals are basically mini time trials. 20 min time trials, 60 min time trials, whatever the distance, you have to pace it properly so the effort is sustainable. It may hurt, alot, but if you do things properly you can finish. A powermeter is essential of course.
Today since I skipped the 40km TT in SC, I planned on the "hour of power" out on the road. It's essentially a time trial of an hour, done just below threshold power - so it's not 100% all out, but darn close. It is also a great way to validate your FTP. Also an excellent exercise in pacing since 60 minutes is a long time and how you feel after 5 min is often quite different than after 35 minutes.
The hardest part of most workouts for me is the first 15 min, the warmup before I even start the intervals. For whatever reason, I often doubt my fitness and motivation during the warmup, the legs don't usually feel great, a few hard efforts usually hurt more than they should, etc. I try hard to block the negative thoughts but sometimes it's tough. Today I ignored how I felt during the warmup.
5 min into the hour I felt good, quite good. Kept it rolling, headed north on route 119. No stopping, no coasting, no traffic and only "a few" dogs. After 20 min I was thinking, man, this is easy. 35 min into it the legs started to hurt a bit more, I got a little concerned, but it passed, and I rocked out the final 20 min strong and basically held a very even pace the entire time. Burned up a nice 1300KJ or about 21.5KJ/minute.
I don't do intervals this long all the time but I think they are so extremely effective, so great at building indurance and FTP and they sure as hell take it out of you. I ate the biggest sweet potatoe I've ever seen, must have been 2lbs, now I'm fighting to stay awake.
So next time you head out the door, remember that much of what you are doing is training your mind, your pacing ability, your willpower. Your legs will do whatever you tell them, don't let them talk you out of riding hard!
