Stay Present

I was doing an indoor trainer ride recently at my coach’s office.  It was an FTP test (Functional Threshold Power).  FTP is the maximum power that can be sustained for an hour.  For this particular test, I did a 20 minute warmup – building effort every 3-5 minutes, 20 minutes of high cadence - 1 minute intervals with 1 minute recovery, followed by the “meat” of the test – 20 minutes of maximum sustainable power. 

During the warmup my legs were feeling a burn.  Then during the high cadence intervals my legs really started burning and I kept wondering how I was going to perform the last 20 minutes of this FTP test.   After one of the high cadence intervals I finally said to Matt: “My legs are feeling this, I am worried about the last part of this test”.  Matt’s reply: “All you need to worry about is getting through the next minute".

OK!  That comment hit home at that particular moment.  It was a great reminder for me to stay present during my workouts.  Lately I have been ‘worrying’ about my next workout during my current workout.  For example, during a swim when my legs are getting tired, I start thinking that my run is going to be hard since my legs are tired.  Or during a bike workout, I start wondering how I am going to be able to do a weight workout when my legs are already burning. 

So, since that day I have been working hard on staying in the moment during my workouts.   I’m trying not to worry about other workouts I have to complete.  It makes the current workout much more productive if I’m not worrying about how I’m going to do the next workout because you know what… somehow my body always finds a way! :)