Thursday, April 16, 2009

Thursday Track

am) Fairview track.
Here's the main set:
200- 36"
13 X 400 in 70"-73".
Rest intervals were simply "when I felt recovered". The shortest was 50", the longest was 2:00.
1000 at a comfortably hard effort in 3:15 (tempo effort).
The #1 goal today was to walk off the track not feeling like I taxed myself. The last 400 I felt a little sting so I stopped. The 1000 was more just to see how tired I actually was and it felt relaxed and quite comfortable. 3:15 certainly isn't fast, but it's an indication of how hard the 400's were. I felt very little in regards to fatigue.

The weather was cold (~33 degrees) with a steady rain the entire time and a fairly solid wind. When I lived in Seattle the Winters were simply miserable. The Winter of 1999/2000 we had 90 days in a row of rain and I averaged over 250 miles per week on the bike. I found myself at the end of that Winter able to handle anything, I was "nails" after that. As an amateur I only lost 1 race that year, an Olympic distance race (I think I still went 1:58) 5 days after I won Ironman Lake Placid and set the amateur course record. I think if an athlete can train in miserable conditions there is a hardening of the mind that happens. It's all about enduring in tough times. You get to the point where you simply don't care about the weather, it doesn't matter... there's work to do.
I booked my plane ticket to Chicago. $178.00.

9 comments:

wende said...

I know we said last night to think on it for a week, but it looks like you've made up your mind! Should Michael book his flight too?

J.P. Patrick said...

I left Seattle and moved to Boulder after that heinous winter. Boulder, of course, neglected to put the heinous winds in their visitors brouchure! I just looked outside and am heading out to run in the rain and wind... I have a hard mind!

Lucho said...

Wende- yes.

JP- I never said it was fun to train in miserable conditions, but if you can get to a point where it doesn't affect you, then you've made a small step forward. My opinion.

J.P. Patrick said...

I did a blog post after the new year on just this topic. If you live in Seattle in the rain or Boulder with the wind or where ever with whatever, somedays you just need to grit the teeth (you can brush the sand out later!), htfu and get after it. I ran home from work (Denver to Lafayette) two weeks ago and was crushed by conditions when I walked in the door. Looking back and reflecting the next afternoon... it was one of the more deeply satisfying runs I had in awhile.

Lucho said...

I find myself feeling something similar. I used to love the fact that I was the only guy out on a bike training his ass off... I wouldn't see a single other athlete. It gave me a mental edge I believe. What we do- endurance sports- is really all about enduring when it gets tough. Simple.
I love the point to point runs. When you step out the door you're committed. Good stuff.

Anonymous said...

Dude, why do you think Rocky trained in Siberia, he knew the way to beat those Commies was by going old school!

Lucho said...

Precisely!!! No better way to say it.

Anonymous said...

You should move to Houston. The weather is great all summer - mild temps and low humidity.
brian

Lucho said...

Brian- Now THERE'S brutal conditions! I would take 33 and raining over 100 with 100% humidity any day. And in a training sense- the heat and humidity is harder.
Cheers!