Threshold

Last night, the point of our workout was to push beyond our lactic acid threshold. The actual workout really didn't sound that bad (40-45 minutes of Cat Hill repeats). Especially when Coach Steve told us that he expected "the fast guys" to get 5 or 6 repeats in. (Really? Last year I remember doing a hill workout on Cat Hill where we did 10 repeats!) The rest of us he said would get in 3-5. But this is an instance where the devil is in the details.

The hill repeat was a good .5 miles long (and Steve was really exact on this...my Garmin logged each uphill portion at .5 miles exactly!) and all uphill. The first 200 or so feet, from the 72nd Street Transverse to the Boathouse was supposed to be done at 80% effort. From the Boathouse to the Cat Statue we were to pick it up to 85% effort. As we crested the hill, we were supposed to take it all out all the way to Cleopatra's Needle. After that we recover all the way back to the start and repeat.

Even writing down the workout makes it seem lame, but it was really truly tough.

The point was, that when you crested the hill, that since you were going at such a quick clip (and UP) you would have built up a significant amount of lactic acid in your legs. Sprinting to the finish helped us work PAST that lactic acid and hopefully, would increase our tolerance.

And boy did I sprint those last portions. So much so, that when I started climbing that hill the second time my legs felt HEAVY.

My first split was 3:55, but it pretty much went downhill (haha) from there. But, that means I was actually doing the workout right. Believe me, I gave it my all. And the thing about our hill repeats? There is no stopping! I remember doing repeats with my Roncker's team in Cincy, and we always ran up the hill, recovered down the hill, and then had a few seconds to collect ourselves before the next repeat. Uh-uh, no stopping here.

So I was pretty happy when my next split was 3:57. But my third repeat yielded a 4:10. Whoops. The fourth was a 4:11. And I thought that was my last one, because when Steve was heading down on the downhill as I was heading up it he yelled "Great workout!" to me, which I thought meant it was my last one. But then as I was coming back down, he was standing by the Boathouse and was like "Just one more, then you're done."

Uh, I was running out of gas.

I managed a 4:07 on that last one, and I have no idea how. But I was ecstatic that I took 4 seconds off after feeling like I did.

I also looked like I had taken a shower.

Once again though, I was quite happy with my workout. I had given it my all and proven to myself once again that I am tougher than I think :)