I Get By...

...with a little help from my friends.

Actually, to be technically correct, that would be "I keep up, for a while anyway, with a good draft and a little push from my friends."

Last night was a fun workout.  Sprinter Boy, Hawkeye Boy, and Mel were doing a...I'm not sure what it was...long intervals? Fast endurance?  Anyway, it sounded like fun--two sets of four times four laps. It sounded like fun, that is, all except the pace they were planning.

40's.

Now, I can do 40 second laps.  I can even do 40 second laps without a draft.  I cannot, however, do more than one--or maybe two on a really good day--40 second laps in a row, and I cannot do more than about, oh, 10 total in a workout. So 32 40-second laps, in sets of four, sounded, well, daunting--even with a draft.

But what the heck, I'm not getting any younger (or, apparently, any faster or thinner), so there's no time like the present to push that comfort zone and start improving, right?

So off we went.  The Big Three--Mel, Sprinter, and Hawkeye--led, providing a nice draft for the three of us who were just hoping to hang on as long as possible--me, Cross Boy, and Skater Dad.  And, ironically enough, I would, at the request of Sprinter Boy and Hawkeye Boy--yes, those same skaters who had talked me into leaving my stopwatch in my bag for the month of December--be recording our lap times with my trusty-but-recently-neglected stopwatch.

Lap one--feeling good, nicely in the draft (my, those three skate low!), and a "we're just getting going" 41. Lap two was faster...but lap two also brought the familiar "why is there a dying carp flopping around in my chest?" sensation that means I'm getting PVC's--and also that I will, very very soon, be getting very tired and very short of breath.  Which I did.  So I had to drop out after lap three.

So for set two, there was a new plan...put me third in the pace line, with someone behind me to push me (ever so slightly, of course) if I should falter.  And it worked.  Despite more dying carp, I managed (with a bit of help) to hang in for all four laps, two 40's and two 39's.

Set three, though, the dying carp prevailed and, push or no push, I was done after one lap.  Very frustrating. After the Fast and the Fit finished the fourth set, we headed into the warming house, where I read everyone the lap times and indulged in a bit of overanalyzing.  I was starting to question whether I'd actually been feeling my heart arrhythmia or whether I've gotten so out of shape that I'm now confusing the sensation of "100% effort heartrate and fatigue" with "dying carp PVC's."  It's hard to tell what you're feeling when you're at 100% effort, and I guess I just don't trust myself anymore--am I really experiencing PVC fatigue...or unfit old lady wimpiness?

Still, there were four sets left so I had to try again.  And I'm glad I did.  The first two sets featured laps from 39-41 seconds, no PVC's, a nice natural descent into fatigue instead of the immediate breathlessness I get from PVC's, a helpful push or two when I started to falter--and me able to hang on for the whole two sets. Cool!

And then I was truly and totally done.  I coasted around for a few laps, resting my aching legs, and watched the Fast and the Fit finish the final two sets--with laps as low as 37's.  And I marveled, every time they whooshed by, that I had actually been able to keep up with them for a bit.

With a good draft and a push or two, anyway.