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.

Monday, May 26, 2014

Pain, pain go away

I thought I would get used to the pain associated with high intensity workouts but this doesn't seem to be happening.  It makes me wonder if I'm doing something wrong - am I dehydrated?  Am I not eating enough? Is there something missing from my diet?

The 10 minutes or so following my last few sessions have been particularly difficult.  It seems silly to even be able to say this when a look back in my training journal finds the notation 'brutal' after almost every effort.   But it sure feels true, although i'll admit it is a challenge to rank the relative difficulty of workouts that are so frequent and where the aftermath is so severe but short lived.

On Sunday, for example--in the wake of my stepmill workout-- that aftermath included walking a lap around the indoor track.  The lap, about 1/12 of a mile, took nearly 10 minutes.  I spent that 10 minutes consumed by the pain lungs and legs. My mind could not escape the sensation or become distracted from it and was left whirling around in frantic circles trying to reason out a solution - something action or thought that would help dull it.  I tried lying down and putting my legs up the wall which made it worse (maybe the blood needs to circulate more quickly to restore some sort of PH balance in the tissues surrounding my muscle cells?  That is my most recent theory anyway). And despite the fact that I know from experience that there is no escaping the intense discomfort that results from these 7 minute bouts with exercise, the discomfort is so all encompassing that I am as of yet unable to keep from trying.

With further reflection I've realized that it is a rather unusual experience to be completely taken over by physical suffering at one moment and then a mere 15 minutes later feel absolutely no trace of it.  I can't think of any other routine painful circumstances in which this might is the case - any injury or trauma will cause 'lingering' pain or such for well beyond this time-frame, and/or yield to manual attempts to mitigate it to some degree (pressure, massage, position, etc).

It is like Mike Mentzer says (regarding the effects of true high intensity training) -
"Until you either experience it for yourself or watch someone else do it, you can’t possibly appreciate.”
In writing this I've realized that maybe I'm not missing anything at all - calories, nutrition, or hydration - but that, unfortunately perhaps, I'm just doing it right.  In which case, that forecast isn't looking too promising...

[Although i've posted it before, the only video that does justice to what 'a good' workout usually feels like to me is this video, which shows an ice climber getting something called the hot aches.]

1 comment:

  1. Excellent advice. If you're training for a triathlon or ironman and need to rent a wetsuit you can do so by renting from TriWetsuit Rentals. They are fantastic. www.triwetsuitrentals.com

    ReplyDelete