To the Last Drop

Swim Day

1 x 150- Warm-up
5 x 200- 3:00
5 x 100- 5, 7, 9
3 x 300- 4:30
2 x 400- even laps easy/odd laps hard
1 x 100- Cool down
total- 3450 yds

This swim was supposed to happen Thursday. Then my body remembered teaching had just started on Monday and I had changed very little about my training. I was wiped when I got home Thursday. When I teach its a full body workout, and there was some adjusting going on. It ain't easy going from a few weeks off to bam in with 30 kids. Anyone who says different, punch them in the face.
So I was worn out and moved my rest day up. (These ideas are my own and also come from the excellent Run: The Mind-Body Method of Running By Feel. Read my review here.) There are benefits to training fatigued, like the body learning how to break through soreness and maintain stroke/stride/pedal quality and to suffer greater, but there is a line too. At some point in the fatigue spectrum you no longer do any good and start instead to over-punish, get past that last drop, and everything starts falling apart. My body told me we were riding an edge and laying in bed after school, then relaxing with the wife was a better choice.
Was it ever! I felt so much better Friday. Still tired after school, because that's how you feel, but nowhere near what I was feeling 24 hours earlier. And I killed the above workout. Everything was made on the time standards, the 200s set with ten seconds rest and the 300s with five to one second (!). Love that last set too! Having the safety blanket of an easy odd lap meant that it was easier to break through any mental bonds and really attack each odd lap. Having Rocket Queen by GnR on repeat in my head doesn't hurt either (By the way, Rocket Queen is one of the most underrated Guns songs of all time. The way the song shifts gears after three minutes and turns into a completely different song is amazing, and the lyrical content for the final 2:45 is unlike anything else on the album.) I was nailing that wall on the flip at the end of each lap and finished like a swimmer. Heavy breathing and wall hanging did ensue. I'm a pleased Dirtbag. Now getting ready and digested for today's long ride. Hope Pineapple Hill is a little more gentle this time.