That doesn't look fun

It looked like it was going to be one of those 'blech' swims this morning. Without giving away to many of Paul Newsome's secrets, the set that greeted us when we got to the pool deck this morning read a little something like this:

Warm up
500m
1000m
1500m
1000m
500m
Warm down

I know right. Blech.

But you know what, it wasn't.

The set wasn't quite as simple as that. There were a couple of twists. Twists that amazingly made the session, which on paper looked like being pretty dull, actually interesting. And quite challenging.

It went well though. It was one of those swims where I got towards the end and everything started clicking together technique wise. Rather than feeling fatigued and slower, I started feeling better and better. The second half of the second 1000m piece felt great. I have been swimming for years, and am pretty okay at it (it is my strongest leg), but I still find those sessions where it all just falls together frustratingly infrequent. Making them less infrequent is something I would like to improve on.

And my reward for the good swim. Next Wednesday I will probably get to swim with the fastest group, having to work even harder. Swim hard and train hard so that you go faster, so that you get to swim harder and train harder. Sometimes I think your average athlete must have a screw loose.

The other activity on the program for today is a ride. We will wait and see about that one. Currently the weather is not looking promising. The forecast for the rest of the day is this. A bit of rearranging of sessions may be necessary.

We shall wait and see though. It wouldn't be the first time where the forecast has been for doom and gloom and I have ended up having a great ride.

Whatever happens tonight, I am sleeping in tomorrow morning. Hooray.

On to a different track now. In my post yesterday I spoke about how I had gone out for my afternoon interval session, which was particularly tough. In that post I said that in my opinion, sessions like that were one of the differences between the guys at the pointy end of a field and the rest. I thought I would go back to that for a minute and elaborate on my thoughts.

Hanging around and chatting with other athletes there are a couple of attitudes/stories that you come across time and again, sometimes from the same person. The first is the common athlete story of getting a niggle, or a cold, and 'toughing it out', because you can't possibly have a session off and 'lose fitness'. The inevitable happens and you end up with an injury that results in a long break. Sometimes meaning you have to almost start from scratch once you are able to train again. I am familiar with this story since I have told it myself a couple of times.

The other attitude you hear a fair bit is, 'I don't want to train tired', or 'I am an Ironman so I only train long and steady' or 'recovery is as important as training'. Now don't get me wrong, I think these statements are mostly correct, and as far as I am aware the science behind these statements is solid. A lot of long distance triathlon training is long and steady, and having adequate recovery time in your program is vitally important. However, I also think that people often take these statements too far, and use them as an excuse to stay in bed when it starts to hurt.

For me, when you start to get a niggle, or a bit of a cold etc, it is an example of your body saying 'I can't'. Making an excuse to stay in bed because you are tired, that is more an example of 'I don't want to'. 'I can't' and 'I don't want to' can often look similar at first glance, but in reality they are miles apart. Telling the difference between them is a case of listening to your body and being able to figure out what it is really telling you.

In the end training consistently and smart is one of the most important aspects of training well, but if you want to go quicker, it is going to hurt. And it is supposed to.