Source Endurance

Sometimes the mental challenges are as great as the physical. As part of my training, my coach, Derick, schedules phases and cycles that coincide with a larger picture for the next race’s preparation, the coming season, as well as my long-term development. Each phase brings its own challenges, physically and mentally.

I just finished a three week VO2 max block and after a little recovery I am moving back into a volume build. So what’s the big deal, isn’t this par for the course? Yes, but I wanted to write briefly about the mental challenges of the VO2 max block. In this phase, we greatly cut my volume and dramatically increase the intensity level. We have really short and hard days followed by days of easy recovery workouts and rest. The intent of this phase is to produce an dramatic overload and prompt physiological adaptations in my VO2 max (a measure of the body’s efficient use of oxygen at very high work loads). With these shorter, VERY intense workouts followed by ample recovery, over time we can increase the heart’s stroke volume and prompt the body to increase cellular mitochondria; in other words make my body more efficient.

So again, you may ask what’s the big deal, isn’t this par for the course? Again yes; however, there are mental challenges I personally cope with outside of the normal psychological stains from high intensity workouts. In my mind, I’m focused on my Ironman Arizona preparation. In the past, during Ironman build-ups I’ve depended primarily on high training volumes while mixing in some intensity here and there. So I’ve conditioned myself to think that Ironman is about volume only. Volume is very important, but it’s not everything.

During this VO2 max phase, when my volume relative to past Ironman preparations is very low, I’ve had to trust that it fits into the grand plan. This is where Derick is invaluable. As I see others preparing for the same race biking many hundreds of miles and running 20 mile long-runs, for the last three weeks, I haven’t touched volumes close to those levels. This is where Derick has gotten to play the role of my therapist. As doubt creeps into my head, he reminds me to trust that the type of training in these last few weeks will greatly help in Ironman preparation. Trust; no matter what anyone says, can be difficult. This is what’s great about our coaching relationship, even when I have doubts, we talk it through and I really trust Derick. I’ve needed to trust that although this training doesn’t fit with my past paradigm for Ironman preparation or mimic what I see others doing in their training, it is indeed the right approach for my development. It was hard for me to accept that 2-3 minute intense efforts will help me in an 8.5-9 hour race; guess what, IT DOES!

So as I move out of VO2 max and back into volume, once again, my trust in the process has been affirmed. In this last week, the fitness tests I’ve preformed in workouts have shown that coming out of the last phase, I’m stronger and faster than I’ve ever been. Now we look towards the next five weeks to start upping the volume for the final push before tapering for Arizona.

Pat

www.patrickevoe.com