"How can you ride your bike on the trainer for so long and not get bored?"
I get that question a lot. Hell, I think when I first starting riding I *asked* that question a lot. And even after I was moderately experienced, I still thought this workout, a 5.5 HOUR trainer workout, was insane. INSANE. Seriously, who would do this, voluntarily???? Ok, ok. If you are Ironman training and you live in Siberia, I get the need. But for the rest of us? No way. I've owned it for years, because, well, I love everything Troy puts out and I like to have a varied collection of workouts. While during the intro and throughout the workout, he claims that we HAVE TO FINISH this workout if we start it. Well, I've done disc 1 (it's a 3 disc set) many, many times and it's a fantastic workout on it's own, and to date, Troy hasn't showed up at my house to take the workout back from me for disobeying the rules. :) So while I've owned this for years, I've never done it in it's entirety and never had plans to. Because, that's crazy talk.
Until this year's December Challenge that is. As usual, the Challenge ends on New Year's Day with, yup, the HardCore 100. I'd been off my bike from any serious training for quite a while, so the thought of a 5.5 hour ride at this point, even after the challenge, was sort of silly. Especially when four days prior we had a 3-6 hour (our discretion) ride scheduled. Prior to this, I'd done Tough Love, which is a very difficult 3 hour Spinervals workout a few times, and that was my longest ride EVER on the trainer. So for the 3-6 hour ride, I put in 3.5 hours and felt great about it. But..... by the end of that workout, I was DONE. My legs hurt. I had a wicked side cramp, and other, ahem, more delicate body parts hurt. How was I going to go an additional 2 hours, just a few days later?????
All I can say is that Troy outdid himself with this workout. It's coaching magic on film, it really is. The first two hours just fly by - you really don't even notice it, the sets are fun, the cast is fun and engaging, Troy is funny, you are done with Disc 1 before you know it. He gives you a 3 minute bathroom break and you pop in Disc 2. The key here, I found, was to not look at the countdown timer. Seeing 3.5 hours left after I had just finished 2 hours? That messes with your head. Just don't look at it, don't think about it, just follow the workout. There were stretches in here that took some mental toughness, the sets got a bit harder, my legs were getting a bit fatigued, and once I hit the 3.5 hour mark, a little bit of self doubt would occasionally try to creep in. "You are in uncharted territory - the wheels are going to fall off ANY SECOND! Just you wait and see!" Thankfully I was able to shut that down pretty easily, for the most part, and stick it out. Then, before you know it, those two hours are done, you get another 3 minute break, and then the real fun begins, at the 4 hour mark. Disc 3. You know how they say the 1/2 way point of the marathon is at the 20 mile mark? I think the 1/2 way part for HC100 is at the start of Disc 3. You only have 1.5 hours left - for endurance types, that's nothing, really. But .... you are 4 HOURS in. You are tired. Stuff is starting to hurt a little. And the sets are getting HARD. This is where the coaching magic truly happens. Every word out of Troy's mouth is perfect. When I was starting to lose my focus, he somehow knew, and said EXACTLY the right thing to snap me back into the game. When I was getting tired, he knew and said EXACTLY the right thing to make me forget about being tired, and to keep pushing hard. Magic.
I have to admit that I sort of lost it at about the 5 hour mark (!!!!!) when he announced there were 5 killer minutes coming up next. Killer minutes, as you might guess, are KILLER. At the 5 hour mark, they seem like ... suicide. I cried. Yup, I cried. For about 2 seconds I cried, then I mentally yelled at myself to stop being a baby and I killed those f&^%ing minutes (spoiler alert! Thankfully Troy is nice to us and we don't actually do 5....). Now, the wheels really are falling off, but there are only a few minutes left. I am going to finish this workout. I am ACTUALLY GOING TO FINISH THIS ENTIRE 5.5 HOUR WORKOUT, HOLY CRAP!!!!!!! But we finish with all out, 30 second sprints that honestly and truly make you see stars. But then it's over. It's over, it's over, it's over! And I felt like I accomplished something MONUMENTAL! I know it sounds silly - a workout in my basement. Big deal. But it WAS a big deal, and I was really proud of myself, and so very thankful for all of my Spinervals Team Members who were cheering me on (and me them) along the way all morning long via our quickie phone updates to FB. We did it!!!!!
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| Super 6: Phase III |
It's going to be a great year!
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