Effort

Today I managed to haul my ass to the gym, intent on getting over the "but I have training this evening" excuse. I've been a fairly regular gym-goer now for about two years (thanks, sweetheart!) and I'm at the stage where the trainers know who I am and I get a nod from other regulars. A few years ago the idea of that happening to me anywhere that wasn't a pub was pretty unthinkable, but I guess that's progress for you.

The exercise was interval training, which as everyone from the scary lady on The Biggest Loser to the enthusiastic announcer on the zumba ad will tell you will give you the biggest bang for your buck in terms of weight loss, cardio, and not having to spend too long at it. My variation uses the cross-trainer. 5 mins medium setting to warm up, then hit the heaviest setting you can move for 30 seconds, going as hard at it as you possibly can. Then 60 seconds on a low setting, just pacing, then rinse and repeat until you start hallucinating. I can normally do about seven sets before it starts going grey. Takes 20 minutes including cool down, and does absolute wonders for your explosive power, heart rate and all the other stuff you want improved. I love it.

After I'd recovered enough to form cohesive thoughts again, it got me thinking about effort. The beauty of intervals is that they never get any easier, because you are always hammering it 100% in those 30 seconds. You might reach a higher RPM, or up the level once in a while, but apart from that there's no real feeling of improvement. All there is is effort. So, why stick at it? Why keep going when I've failed to stick at weights and some other exercises where the improvements are tangible and easy to appreciate?

As with everything else, this led on to derby. A few of us were talking after training today (whips and pushes and 22 1/2 laps in 4 minutes, oh my!), and one of the skaters was saying that she felt that she just wasn't getting better, that no progress was being made. How lucky was I that this linked back to my earlier musings! I think there's something great about our ability to put in everything we've got, over and over again, despite feeling that there's no tangible gain. To keep hitting the rink, the crosstrainer, the pool, whatever it is and just work out until you feel like you'll never move again, that's when real gains are made, and not just in the size of your ass. The legendary Bonnie D.Stroir in her blog (go check it out, it's got more cute pics than here!) makes the point about not holding back in training, and I think that it's that need to keep pushing as hard as you can that makes or breaks you if you really want to skate well, be a good blocker, or even just fit in a pair of size 10 jeans. If you can see past the short term "number gains" to a bigger picture, then you're way more likely to succeed. I think.

Apologies for wittery post, tomorrow there's no training and I'm doing core work so there'll be less navel-gazing. Probably.