Training XI

Sometimes little things happen that surprise even me at the grizzled old age of 45 (less 6 weeks). One of those things happened tonight ...

Training has been getting tougher and although I am making progress, in order to keep the pushing the group onward, Chuckle Elder has been devising more fiendish programmes to push the work rate up and the recovery times down. Some of this is mental torture and even Fat Lad is getting in on the act.

Phone rings at lunch time. I'm having a tough day at work anyway because some testing that I promised my director I would have completed for the end of June took place on Friday but we overran into today, much to his displeasure. So when Fat Lad tells me that he's been speaking to CE but he can't tell me about tonight's session as I probably wouldn't turn up, things get steadily worse. I tried to ring CE but I guess he was in class teaching and so I had to suffer in silence until late in the afternoon when Fat Lad said it was 4 minutes running with 1 minute rest, then another 4 minutes running with a 1 minute rest and another and another and another .... 5 times through in total with 1 minutes rest in between each run.

So when I arrived at training I was ready for that and then CE announces it's different, something even harder! Friday's sessions had been one touchline, one touchline, one goal line, two touchlines one goal line and finally a full circuit of the football field on which we did our mobility stretches ... all at a pace which was the best that could be managed. Tonight was simpler than that ... it was a full lap with 1 minute's rest, followed by a full lap, with one minutes rest and then two more repeats before a 5 minute rest.

Then the real fun began when we were to do two laps at best pace possible with a 2 minute rest and repeat that 3 more times. I was already absolutely out on my feet by the end of the warm up lap tonight and I was feeling the pace of a weekend's alcohol consumption and the trip to the gym yesterday afternoon. So when CE said two laps I must have gone visibly paler, but I started the first one and as agreed I kept with CE, Fat Lad, Zico and Titfer for one lap, then my pace fell away and I finished a good 75m behind the leader.

On the second run around I felt ok and my heart was working at 85% of max. CE told me I needed to put my heart max back down to 175 to reflect my age but I'm enjoying (strange definition of enjoy I know!) working at a 186 max and still getting into that 84-88% band where I suffer for my fitness. On lap 3 CE and Zico lapped me but I was still working as hard as I could. As I finished my first lap, CE told me to work a couple of % harder, so I started lifting my feet more, stretching my stride out and working that bit harder. I was disappointed to find that when I finished I was still only at 85% of maximum.

I thought Titfer was going to go with me on the last lap but he set off a few seconds early and was around 15 yards ahead when I set off. By the end of the first lap that had stretched to around 20-25 yards and I wanted to catch him but not at the risk of injuring myself. Before we had set off he had mentioned he was concerned about his running action causing him to turn his ankle in which made him more vulnerable to twisting it, an injury he suffered on at least one game last season.

So when he stopped dead at the end of the first touchline I thought his ankle had gone but he had jarred his knee and decided to stop as a precaution. CE had already told me at the end of my first lap that I had one and half minutes for my last lap. As I got to the end of the goal line at the top of the field I decided to see how much I had left and I began to stride out, full length paces, full arm swings, pushing myself to the limit ... all thought of precautions against injury out of my head I was going for a grandstand finish. I've seen marathon and other long distance runners find this one last burst of energy and I never thought it possible before, but I had it.

I seemed to get faster, then I hit the goal line and turned towards the rest of the gang standing in the goal area. I thought my lungs were going to burst but felt I had maybe a little more in my legs and then I finished. After recovering and chatting to Titfer about his knee we did our warmdown and went home. Calories burned 832, heart rate max 90%, average 73% - there's more to do! I even went as far as phoning CE to assure him that I haven't always felt like I had some in reserve and he said he knew. I just needed to get my second wind faster and get more confidence in what I can do, instead of worrying about getting injured. I know it's true and I'm starting to look forward to training as well as the time immediately after when the endorphins kick in !!!