I think we all know by now that for athletic performance easy should be eeeeeeasy.
My problem is that I don’t enjoy doing runs/rides at that effort & for my stupid mental health I drift into what would be considered recklessly fast if I was taking things seriously.
I spend too much time in the grey zone but I find it really hard not to when training for ultras. You want to hit high volume but don’t always have the time or inclination to artificially run slowly.
Also, the more time you are on your feet, the definition of ‘easy’ changes depending what you are training for. I find it hard enough to hit the volume around work and family.
If you’re training for a marathon or IM, that’s pretty specific and prescribed. I find with ultra training, you have a mix of road, flat, vert, walking and whole lot of making shit up when you walk out of the door. It’s bloody hard to write a program that goes beyond ‘time on feet’ or ‘vert per week’.
So my road runs inevitably end up feeling ‘fast’ but they aren’t and the trouble is they aren’t slow enough either. I hate trying to run slowly on the road, if feels forced and clumpy. An easy 20km road run for me should be 6.00/km or slower but I nearly always end up at 5.40/km.
I’ve given up on proper speed. 
I find that when I ride outside, pace tends to fluctuate more and then I find myself racing to get through the lights before they change 
so it ends up like a long fartlek session.
If I go out with my friend I tend to go a bit slower but not endurance.
Whereas on the Wattbike I find it much easier to keep a set power as my cadence is steady and I just change the resistance. This is of course fairly boring, and I still get carried away sometimes on the group rides!
I think that’s why I’ve enjoyed myself so much more since I just started doing what I wanted.
Doing Norseman and Otillo (plus some other mental health improvements) made me realise to myself that I was a worthy athlete … and that freed me from the tyranny of my mind telling me that I needed to prove something.
None of which helps anyone wanting to improve …
I have to enjoy this, otherwise I won’t keep at it. If I can get an IM on the back of long slow runs/rides tootling round the Peak District coupled with a hard Parkrun once a week I’ll be very happy.
And I’m in!!!
My power numbers all look a little less pathetic on Intervals and I’ve lost 1bpm off my MAF heartrate.
Happy birthday 
……and name change to Oldlife-Trisis?
Happy birthday and welcome
In 9 days time I’ll be only 3yrs away from coming out of the other side!
Happy Birthday @Midlife_Trisis
Happy 50th @Midlife_Trisis.
Happy 50th youngster! 
Happy Birthday 
Morning kiddo, any pension/injury advice welcome 
Welcome to the club. Happy birthday 
Happy Birthday @Midlife_Trisis 
I don’t like Wurthers
Happy Birthday, enjoy the new AG!
Wonder what the odds are on you sharing a birth date with anyone…
Was on nights last night. Woke up to a load of notifications and naturally assumed something serious had happened. 
Thank you all for your birthday wishes.
50 is a strange one. When I hit 40 it didn’t seem like a big deal, but 50 genuinely feels a bit more serious. I’m not the kind of person to worry about this kind of thing so we’ll see how it pans out. Should I end up buying an inappropriate vehicle for my age you’ll see it in the recent purchases thread.
Regarding pensions, go back in time 3 months, sell all your tech stock and buy gold before Russian invaded Ukraine.
I hit the big seven-oh next year…FML how the hell did that happen??
Happy Birthday - 51 feels less painful