Floating and Floundering
Monday I had my best workout of the year so far. 3x5x1min of uphill double pole. I don't know what was going on but I felt like I was able to create a ton of power through the poles and felt totally comfortable extending forward and getting all my body weight over my poles. My times got faster each set and I felt like I was recovering back to 100% in very little time. Pat Casey told me something the other day which I've been mulling over-- when you come forward in the double pole instead of coming up and then falling forward onto your poles just launch directly forward to where you want to start your poling. Now, to be fair to all my other coaches, Pat's by no means the first or only one to try to get this concept across to me (in fact, Erik was talking about this with us last Monday). The way Pat said it just clicked with me... travel the hypotenuse not the sides of the right triangle (at least that's what I heard).
Tuesday I was back to blustering through our 5x5min L4 hill bounding workout. I was going okay, not great, then before our last one Erik stopped us and we regrouped with Taz who was doing the same course but L3 and Erik told us to go all out and for Taz to keep it at X:XX, which was a time 30seconds slower than my L4 pace. Which meant that when I went all out I was only slightly faster than Taz going L3. Which was, quite frankly, disheartening.
My double pole workout I did mostly alone so maybe it felt so good because I didn't have anyone passing me? The hill bounding felt slow but maybe only because there were so many people going faster than I? APU & the USST have been stressing training as a group to push each other but maybe it's important to do some workouts by yourself so you don't get too caught up in comparing yourself to other people. Thoughts?
Tuesday I was back to blustering through our 5x5min L4 hill bounding workout. I was going okay, not great, then before our last one Erik stopped us and we regrouped with Taz who was doing the same course but L3 and Erik told us to go all out and for Taz to keep it at X:XX, which was a time 30seconds slower than my L4 pace. Which meant that when I went all out I was only slightly faster than Taz going L3. Which was, quite frankly, disheartening.
My double pole workout I did mostly alone so maybe it felt so good because I didn't have anyone passing me? The hill bounding felt slow but maybe only because there were so many people going faster than I? APU & the USST have been stressing training as a group to push each other but maybe it's important to do some workouts by yourself so you don't get too caught up in comparing yourself to other people. Thoughts?
posted by LAV at 11:15
2 Comments:
I really enjoy training both ways. Sometimes the kids on my club team go just a bit too fast for me on long workouts, and that forces me to push more than I want to on a 2+ hour rollerski. However, training with a friend makes it much easier. I hate running alone, but I can do it with a friend. I also prefer intervals with a group.
I've been training by myself for years; the only times I've been around others while I've skier or run is when I see someone out on the roads or trails or when I race. By and large, I love being by myself, but I would definitely like someone along on a long doublepole workout (for company) or during an interval session (for competition). C'est la vie, though - it's not an option right now.
Having been, on my long doublepole sessions, experimenting with different ways of generating power, I'd be very interested in seeing a video showing the motion "on the hypotenuse" and "off the hypotenuse." I'm trying, I think, to move my shoulders and hips diagonally up and forward, but not necessarily on a hypotenuse.
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