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December 31, 2004
A Failed Attempt
I decided to take it easier today due to the high heart rate I sustained yesterday. And I must say that I made a valiant effort to do so, as I spent 5 minutes on the elliptical before getting off and moving over to the erg. The lights weren't on in the gym, and my reasoning was that since it would be harder to read the monitor, I wouldn't pay as much attention to the splits. The index card I usually tape over the screen was enjoying a hiatus with my heart rate monitor across the room in my bag, and I didn't feel like getting them.
The truth is, quite a few things were bothering me today, and it has been my tendency in the past to take my issues to the erg, where I get so distracted that not much bothers me except for the numbers in front of my face. As the monitor counted down from 40 minutes, I started off with an average of 2:26 (which is really high for me, so I was trying to back off). But after 5 minutes, the average was 2:25; 10 minutes, 2:24; 15 minutes, 2:23. By this time, it had become an objective to drop the average split one second every 5 minutes. This is exactly my kind of workout, because since the average split is cumulative, I was pulling very low numbers comparitavely by the end of the 40 minutes. Needless to say, I finished with an average split of 2:18. For some perspective, though, this is something I could have easily pulled my novice year.
Conclusion: When combined with intense self competition, getting back in shape is not so fun.
Posted by rgutwin at December 31, 2004 07:05 PM