Outside Motivation

The 2010’s were my decade of Crossfit. Three days on, one day off, endlessly variable, and, almost but not quite, endlessly intense. Twenty minutes, excluding the warm-up – which is saying a lot because the meme “my warm-up is your workout” was pretty true – of lung-busting work. My adherence to the WOD (workout of the day) was near fanatical and included training even after a ski or climbing day.

These days, getting intensity in is a real mental challenge. The anaerobic efforts are hard and take more recovery time. I often find, which is not normal for me, that some outside motivation helps get the session done. That outside motivation might be chasing Quick Nick into the wind, or it might be attending the local Park Run.

The chattering mind picks up the pace along with the breathing, and is, I’m pretty sure, determined to derail efforts. “I’m breathing too heavy, I’ll never make it, sweet jesus why is it so hot? – I should have brought a hat, half-way, I’m only half-way, FFS, I could die out here!” I like how Garmin Connect shows Zone 5 in red because the experience does feel like red-lining even when I’m only plugging along at, maximum pace, 9 kilometres/hour.

In the afternoon with the summer northeasterly wind blowing, we paddled over to Yellow Rock. The wind was a bit lighter than the last time we did this and my paddle was not spinning in my hands so it seemed easier. We had sails, which we never take on day trips, but Doug had constructed a new mast that he wanted to test. The return journey was quick but, as I never take a sail on day paddles, it’s easy to forget how tippy empty plumb bow boats are with a sail up in moderate to strong winds.  The week in review: one day rock climbing, one strength training session, two easy cycles totaling 22 kilometres, 51 kilometres paddling and 40 kilometres on foot with 1290 metres gain.  A deload week before the next training push.