Tuesday: 4x2km HD

How much force of will does one have on an average day?

Here’s a sample of the stuff I did today:

  1. Cycled to work in -1 degree C and enjoyed it
  2. Completed a difficult performance review
  3. Discussed salary expectations with a direct report – having to hold a line which I think is a fair one
  4. Listened in to a project review, discovering 55 minutes into the discussion, that the guys who are claiming to be in a verification/validation phase are actually still in a debugging phase, a few weeks from a presentation to a launch customer. Followed a long interrogation on where they think they ought to be vs where they really are, ending with a project leader who felt offended. Followed an hour long discussion with the guy’s manager on how to recover the project …
  5. Helping the boys with their homework … later than expected

Anyway, I still thought I could do a full erg workout, did a warming up and dialed up the 4x2km. I did have a modest target pace, 1:53. First 2km in 1:52.7 in 25spm. Still OK although a little high on the heart rate.

Five hundred meter into interval #2 I stopped. I was doing solid 1:52 pace at the time but I just didn’t feel like completing the workout. Actually, it felt like I was looking at the entire amount of workout work I have to/want to do in the coming winter.

Somehow I have a feeling that a person can be limited in the amount of force of will he can use on a day, and perhaps this is something that needs to be trained as well. Researching this a bit, I actually found an article about it. Key sentence from the abstract: “mentally fatigued subjects reached their maximal level of perceived exertion and disengaged from the physical task earlier than in the control condition. In conclusion, our study provides experimental evidence that mental fatigue limits exercise tolerance in humans through higher perception of effort rather than cardiorespiratory and musculoenergetic mechanisms.”

Will do some easy stretching this evening and that’s it.  Tomorrow’s another day. A travel day, actually.

My morning ride:
Ochtendrit 10-13-2015, Elevation