Fatigue

Great session on the bike last night. Well more accurately I had a great session on the Kickr, but the bike was attached to the Kickr so it more or less counts.

Yes okay I admit, that is my wife's bike not mine, but the photo is still a cool one

The session was a great reminder of the difference that my appointment with Dr Stobie on Monday has made. While Dr Stobie didn't change his advice relating to racing, his clarification of my limits has made a small, but meaningful difference to my exercise.

Riding for the last little while has been an exercise in gentle. More than most other forms of exercise, riding is very easy to do at a low intensity. HR too high? Easy, stop peddling. On the Kickr my rides have tended to be easy spins with a average HR of around 120 bpm to 125 bpm. In terms of power that has translated to a power output of around 150W, which is less than I used to produce for my recovery rides. A little frustrating, but still satisfying.

Last night's ride started in the same way, an easy spin sitting at around 180W. My heart rate was sitting in the low 120s. After a little while it occurred to me that I could work harder if I wanted. On Monday Dr Stobie had said that the important thing was keeping my output down below the 85% level. For me that is up around 150bpm. That means I can work hardish and still be below the limit, so that is exactly what I did.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't go crazy, I just bumped the power up a bit and brought the heart rate into the 130s. In the end my average power for the ride was 230W, which is starting to get halfway reasonable for me. It was great to be able to feel like I was doing some work again after months of easy spins.

That ride, combined with my paddle this morning, reminded me of a truth that I have known for quite some time but have lost sight of recently. I love to train.

I have always known that I love to train. In fact training is probably my favourite part of racing. Over the years I came to realise that I loved to race too (still got nervous as hell, but in the end enjoyed it), but training is where I found my real joy. The feeling of doing work, the fatigue, the satisfaction of work done and improvements being earned. I loved it.

Training over the last couple of days has reminded me that I can still have the feeling.

After my paddle this morning I was tired. Not heart tired, no form of racing heart or ectopic beats, just plain old, normal, boring fatigue. I had done some work and it had worn me out.

It was awesome.

Being worn out from exercise was a good reminder that it doesn't really matter if you are the fittest person in the world, or whether you are starting from scratch, you can still enjoy the satisfaction of well earned fatigue. It was also a good reminder that while I may not be able to race, it doesn't mean that my enjoyment of sport is over. Far from it. I can safely stay within my low risk heart rate limits and still get a lot of satisfaction from the exercise that I can do. I can exercise steadily and still enjoy some well earned fatigue.

Loving it.