Wednesday, April 18, 2012

0 to 33 in 20 seconds

Funny how anticlimactic my last post was, huh?

Turns out my suffer fest wasnt as suffertastic as I anticipated, but last week with 16,500ft of climbing over 230miles was a pretty big suffer fest. So much so that I felt sick on Monday and also didnt ride Tuesday.  I think I found my limit.

Training has given me the opportunity to experience a lot of truly awful things.  Like my entire weekend being a blur of biking, feeding and being unable to sleep Sunday night. Despite being exhausted my body ached and I couldnt fall asleep. I just hurt all over. Yikes.

Tonight I got to experience another new awful.  During races and intervals I have experienced what its like to push really hard - gasping for air, feeling pukey (or even puking a little), being light headed and feeling like Im going to fall off my bike.  Until tonight I had never experienced what it was like to be on the verge of hyperventilating

Thats what happens when you go from 0 to 33mph in 20seconds.

I thought I might have an asthma attack. I couldnt get a full breath and it was freaking me out. Even if I focused on full breaths during the 20s pushes I found myself unable to breathe completely in the 40s of rest between. I managed to stay calm but it was a really unsettling feeling.

Ive said several times that I dont like training a this intensity.  Unlike when I was obsessed with the trumpet in high school and would practice daily for hours I am definitely not obsessed with the bike.  Im training so I can do this bike tour in Italy.

Dont get me wrong,  I do enjoy many things about training.  Ive made a bunch of great new friends so far this year, I discovered I love working out with other people, I love how strong I feel on the bike and having big muscles ! And being able to eat whatever I want is pretty great too.  Im continually in awe of what my body is capable of, and really need to give my mind more credit for what its capable of enduring, too!

I guess that is whats meant when people say to enjoy the process, not just look to the end goal.  Im vey goal oriented so its easy for me to get lost in the drudgery of training.  20second intervals are one of those times!!!  I hope these Wednesday night torture fests will give me the cardio boost I need to make it up Stelvio Pass!!


The real question about Stelvio is... will I push myself to ride nonstop up the 48 switchbacks to the ski resort at 9000ft, or will I stop to take pictures?  Maybe thats what the GoPro is for.

Intervals: http://app.strava.com/rides/6987944