Stop the Whispering and Listen to your Heart

It´s been a great week. I´ve managed to get in 8 hours of training and have done 9 different activities (2 swims, 4 runs and 3 bike sessions) and am feeling rather proud of myself. I am waiting however, for that little voice at the back of my head to start whispering, "you´ll never be able to keep this up until the 31st May," when my big race of the year is on. This always happens when I train for events but has so far kept away. I think this has got something to do with how I am training and also my new mindset.

Being an enthusiastic bloke, I have normally jumped headlong into training when I have a race to prepare for, got tired and then needed extra rest days to recover, lost my training flow and ended up doing the race not being as prepared as I could be. I´ve always been a "get round the course" sort of man. This time it feels different.

The first reason is, I am using a heart rate monitor properly. I´ve had one of these for years and have used it randomly, to see how fast my heart beats up various hills or to see how high I can get my HR etc, but this time I am actually training in a specific zone. This has meant that as I complete my base phase I am just building up my tolerance and not pushing too hard. A good example is the big hill near my house. It´s a good few kilometres long and if I wear my HR monitor it will normally get up to nearly 170 if I am pushing myself to keep up with a group. Now I am spinning at a steady speed in zone 2 (max 152 beats) and it feels effortless. There is no yo yoing of effort. It´s a constant pressure and I´m not actually much slower than before. At the top of the climb there is no gasping of breath just a carry on with the ride. It can be hard if someone overtakes me though. The old ego thing kicks in and I want to race and it´s hard to make yourself stop. At least I´ve got an excuse though. I´m not really slow I´m just training in zone 2!!

 I am assuming that if this base phase keeps gradually adding on time, but stays in a steady HR zone my body will be prepared for the next phase when I start to push a bit harder. I have been really surprised that I have not felt  tired. On Tuesday and Wednesday I was awake just before 6am for my sessions and didn´t feel the effects I thought I would by the time I got to mid afternoon. Training in a good HR zone for the first phase definitley seems to be working. 

I am already looking forward to next week when I have an extra hour of training and will have three before 6am wake up calls instead of this week´s two. I am also going to try to sort out my amazingly weak core section. I have been watching You Tube and have found a great Craig Alexander core workout video which I am going to try and follow. Who knows. By next week I might have a bit more than this week´s one pack.