Workouts of Death

Earlier this year while training for IM CDA, I did a 161-mile ride… 8.5+ hours in the saddle, 8000+ft climbing. The next day, I followed it up with a 20+ mile run.  It was my highest volume training weekend ever. I felt like absolute death.

I also did a 140+ mile ride from Superior to Winkelman to Globe and back. At the end of this ride was steep hill with a 15% grade called “end of the world.” I remember barely moving on this steep incline and my legs were trashed. I felt like death.

T-pace swim tests, 3×300 intervals at an all out effort, are painful… these make me feel like death.

Functional threshold power tests (60 min cycling TTs holding my max sustainable power) make me feel deathly, too.

BUT, there is one workout much worse than any of the others… track workouts. I despise them. They make me want to cry.  They put me deep inside the pain cave.  Mix them with 100+ degree heat and it’s THE workout of death.

Yesterday, I decided to hit up the track after work.  Earlier in the morning, my team (DURAPULSE Performance Co) had an organized practice, so I copied their workout:

1600 WU 

3x 
200 @ sub 5k pace (:30RI) 
400 @ 5k pace (:60 RI) 
800 @ 5k pace (1:30 RI) 
1600 @10k pace (2:00 RI) 
200 @ sub 5k pace (1:00 RI) 

800CD 

Here is a breakdown of my main set:

1st set:
200; :36, 144bpm AVG
400; 1:22, 155bpm
800; 2:45, 158bpm
1600, 5:42, 165 bpm
200, :40, 144bpm

2nd set:
200, :37, 149bpm
400, 1:21, 168bpm
800, 2:44, 171bpm
1600, 5:37, 174bpm (OUCH)
200, :38, 161bpm

3rd set:
200, :38, 164bpm
400, 1:21, 175bpm
800, 2:48, 173bpm
1600, 5:47, 173bpm
200, :39, 157bpm

My heart rate was through the roof, reaching the 190s.  My LTHR is 172bpm so I was giving these sets everything I had.

After my last set, I had to lay down on the bleachers in order to think straight again.  I felt nauseous and my head was spinning.  I began thinking about why I just put myself through such hell, all alone, with no one there to watch me.

I believe it’s workouts like these that puts me above most of my competition.  I remember Chrissie Wellington’s interview before Ironman Arizona in 2010.  Someone asked her “how to get fast”.  Her reply: “You have to be willing to hurt.”  This concept has stuck with me and my coach has really enforced this mindset in my training.

There are many things that inspire me throughout these tough training sessions:

• Caffeine
• A Chipotle burrito afterward
• Impressing Linsey and other hot triathlon chicks
• Lookin’ good in my spandex
• Inspiring others to not be lazy
• Avoid being course clutter
• Meeting goals.. and girls
• Bragging rights
• Winning

Above all, I want to become a Jedi at the DURAPULSE Training Academy… and qualifying for Kona is the only way to obtain this legendary status.