Power

Today was one of the toughest workout I've ever done.  It was a true test of will.  Something I didn't full intend in the beginning, or even when I wrote it over a month ago. 

Warm Up:
10 min AMRAP Sang-Bag Get-Ups @ 60#

This should have been an indicator of how today's workout was going to go.  At min. 3 of this, I was thinking about stopping having already reached a "warm" phase.  I gutted it out, ended up doing 63 reps.  I spent the next 5 min. with my head in my hands sitting on the bench.

Then:
30" Row @ 1:45/500, 90" rest
25x

This was a total mind job.  I did the first one on pace.  The second one, I pushed to see what I could average in 30 seconds, 1:20, tried to do it again on the third one, 1:21, let's see one more time; 1:24...I have nothing left to give at this point.  I'm totally spent.  I start talking to myself about how I don't really need to do this, I don't need to be here, just get up off the rower.  So I do, I have 1:30 to "recover" so I take a little walk around the gym...not good.  I started feeling dizzy and like I was going to vomit.  So I sat down on the erg, 10 sec left to rest.  I strapped in and started pulling, GO time.  I started telling myself that it was only 30 seconds, I could go all out for 30 seconds, all out is relative and I just needed to finish and and work hard.  I am only on round 5. 

Every single round I had to convince myself to stay on and finish the workout.  My pace slipped down to 1:35, 1:38...it was becoming harder and harder to do anything let alone push the pace.  After round 7, I turned the corner and committed to finishing the workout no matter what.  "Hell or high water, I am going to finish, so just get comfortable with that.  Let that sink in."  Once I committed to finishing no matter what I knew that I couldn't get off the seat or I would quit, so I stayed on the erg no matter what.  About this time Chris walks into the gym and takes one look at me then says, "good God, what are you doing, you look like you are in PAIN."  I couldn't respond even if I wanted to.  I do know however, that I am a bit of a contrarian and once Chris started joking that "if it's not fun, I should just stop," at least I think he was joking, I remembered that I like to do the opposite of what people tell me and I started using this to my advantage.  I actually started saying to myself, "you can leave anytime you want Steve, you don't have to be here.  How far are you going to take this?" 

My pace floated pretty wildly depending totally on how well I started the first 5 pulls.  I was on slides and my form got sloppy, I was sliding back and forth hitting the edges here and there, short stroking some times,  it was a disaster.  On those mishaps my time suffered, but I got to rest.  I wonder if I was sabotaging my performance on purpose, or at least at a sub-conscious level so I could get just that much more rest out of it.  Then the next one, I was determined to not let that happen so I would start getting ready sooner, strap in at 30-45 sec to go, start pulling with 3 sec. to go...I found that at this point, it took that long to do the first stroke anyway.  Maybe I was cheating by getting the flywheel going before it was time, not sure.  In the end I averaged 1:33/500 over the 25 sets.  It was seriously a terrible, terrible workout.

I was asked why 25 rounds and why 30 on 90 off.  The reason for that is simple.  My goal was to work on cardio-power.  The Creatine-Phosphate energy system.  To do so, the intervals need to be structured (or at least close to) 10-30 sec of work at 95-100% intensity; followed by 30-90 sec. rest (1:3 ratio of work:rest) for 25-30 rounds.  What I have a tendency to do, is think that I can do the this time element or energy system on any implement and what I'm finding is that some implements are much more excruciating than others.  30" of running compared to 30" of swimming, or Rowing are different animals, and more different still is 30" of KB swings, or thrusters.  But the thing is, I'm still convinced that I "should" be able to do them all IF I am a well rounded athlete.

I feel pretty good about this workout.  It was a pretty good test of will for me and I believed I passed.  I wonder though, if some of those efforts were 95-100% efforts.  Maybe I'm too hard on myself as some people tell me, but my hope is that next time I workout I don't have any doubt in my mind about how hard I worked.