For new readers

To get an idea of what I'm trying to do and why I think it's possible, check out the following entries, they'll help get you up to speed.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Failure

if he's like me, inside he's smiling!
I failed today.

That's a good thing, it means i overreached.

Today it was more mental than physical (at least that was my subjective experience of it).  I wasn't particularly motivated for my 30 minute run (damn 30 minutes just seems so long compared to the 10 minute sessions that make up my three a week workouts!) and so headed to the treadmill for some mechanized motivation and the no-slo-random-pro.

Turns out i'd gotten soft doing this workout on the woodway treadmills, where each segment of the program only lasted 10 seconds. keeping a fast pace up the hills always seemed doable.  Well, the woodways are gone from the Y and only some old precor machines remain.  for a 30 minute random program the segments lasted 1 minute and 4 seconds.

Now i don't let myself cherry-pick an easy looking random profile - i just get what i get.  Today it was 'back-loaded', the last six segments - six minutes and 24 seconds, were at either a three or four percent grade.  Damn.  But the program started out easy and so i attacked with relish.

5 minutes in i bumped the speed up to 8.6 mph (6:58 pace) for 10 minutes, then bumped it again to 9 mph (6:40 pace) for another 10 minutes.

I was pretty tired.  the smallish nylon-belt-simulated hills had begun to take their toll.  but i summoned up my gumption and yelled "once more into the breach my friends!" inside my head and pushed the increase speed button twice more.  I was running up a 4% grade at a 6:30 pace!

For another 30 seconds.

Then i was holding on to the console for dear life for the next 30.  I rallied.  30 more seconds, hands free before a desperate lunge for the bar kept me from being flung off the back.  I still had over 3 minutes left.  I contemplated having one more go at it.  Then i caved and slowed down to a 7:00 pace.  I let go.  i still couldn't manage more than half a minute without the support of my arms - my head just wasn't in it - i couldn't figure out how to override that little man in my head that told me it was quittin' time.

but i'm stubborn and so did what i could - i eeked out a compromise. he promised me i could take the last 100 right foot strikes on my own.  And sure enough, as soon as he signed that executive order, it didn't feel nearly so hard, and left me feeling like i could have pushed harder - maybe even finished the whole thing without slowing down or holding on.

But i didn't.  Today i failed.  but like i said, in a good way.

2 comments:

  1. That's right, in a "good way" which means that you didn't fail at all Andrew but rather became aquatinted with another part of yourself. Love you, Mom Goeddertz

    ReplyDelete
  2. As long as it is not during Swamp Donkey, fail on my dear hubby ;)

    ReplyDelete