This morning was a great time with a small but dedicated group of knights as we waded through hammers and shovels. The company always makes the suffering more bearable.
Nine more hammers done at 80% and another implement complete with The Shovel at 85%. Less than 100 hammers left to go, and only Blender left of all the implements. Almost in the home stretch!
Okay, just kidding. My legs ended the day yesterday telling me I was ready for a 90 or 95% intensity day today. However when I woke up this morning I was NOT believing any of the lies my legs were telling me last night. But, I figured I would try and see what I could do. And silly me decided to do my short 15 minute strength workout before my ride today since it was definitely pretty difficult to do a strength workout after completing 9H at 100% last Tuesday.
Turns out this wasn’t that great of an idea, either. I did most of my nine hammers at 90%. But I was struggling to complete hammers 5 and 6, so I dropped the intensity to 85% for hammers 7 & 8 before turning it back up to 90% for hammer 9. I briefly considered doing hammer 9 at 95%, but that idea lasted about as long as it took me to say “nein!”
Only 90 hammers remaining! I have 99 showing on my training plan just so I have some options depending on how I feel the end of this week.
I have 2x 9H plus Blender scheduled for Saturday, but I’m seriously considering pushing one of those 9H to Friday instead. I don’t know that I could even wake up early enough to get all those sessions done on Saturday. It’s the mental strain at this point. And the sleep is what’s keeping the growing mental Strain at bay. And while I love a good 3+ hour weekend ride, it’s rarely preceded by so little sleep, especially when it would end up closer to 4 hours.
I was thinking it would be a good prep for my 9x9H day, but… I’m having second thoughts. But, I still have the rest of the week to convince myself either way.
When I was planning my week I initially put an easier workout in today, then decided I needed some MAP work and so took inspiration from you @emacdoug and put nine hammers in my plan. I am pretty fatigued at the moment off the back of a few weeks of training, and a race on Sunday, so when I woke up this morning I almost binned it off. Saw this thread and realised my suffering was nothing in comparison and so dragged myself out of bed, ate a banana and downed some water and got on with it. I have also recently tested in which I recorded a significant increase in my MAP and FTP, so in I went with fresh numbers and tired legs. My god that hurt, but got through it, just. Thanks for the motivation to give myself a kicking @emacdoug and chapeau for your massive, bonkers efforts.
My analytics said I was out of over-training and now into recovery, which seemed a little surprising. But I went with it and tested it out by doing the first session at 80% and the second at 85%. Tomorrow is a “Rest Day” after all. The first nine was comfortably difficult. The second nine was definitely a stretch and I had plenty of suffering but without getting all the way to my breaking point.
Tomorrow I will “rest” by helping run the obstacle course at my kids’ field day event which means I’ll likely get at least 20,000 steps in 3 hours of the event plus additional time for setup and take down. Should be quite “restful.” Then I can get back to proper hammering on Thursday.
I had over 17,000 steps while helping set up and take down a homeschool kids field day event and then guiding nearly 50 kids thru a 2 minute obstacle course. Lots of great type 2 fun was had by all!
First session was done at my now standard 80% intensity which had started to feel a bit easier than at the beginning. I must actually be improving my fitness thru all this relentless hammering. Today, tho, did not feel that way. I struggled thru the first session before struggling even more thru the second session at 75%. But, I finished and got them done.
Just 6x9H remaining! That’s still a lot of hammers, but I know the end is near.
With less than a week to go, I’m in the homestretch. Today was a single Nine Hammer day. I was hoping my legs and body had recovered a little more from Wednesday. So I optimistically decided to go for 90% intensity today. And since I’m so close to the end, and I’ve done 90% before, I dialed it up to 91%.
Tomorrow will be Nine Hammers and Pain Shakes (Blender) to finish off my final implement. I’ll be riding for 3 hours but I’m not sure of my timing, so I’m not going to make a Zwift event. But if anyone wants to jump on they can find me and ride along if they wish.
Ride Time: Sat Apr 25: 6am - 9am Pacific Daylight Time
Route: Scotland - The Muckle Yin
That’s for sure. Despite my continued riding, I’ve been prioritizing sleep and had more rest and I can feel the difference. Until I had my first mid-week rest day on the 15th, I could feel I was overreaching and my body was exhausted - and all my external life-stressors weren’t helping. Now that I’m getting more sleep and have had 2 mid-week rest days, I can feel the difference physically and emotionally.
Once I was sufficiently hammered (and my legs were good and tired) it was on to Blender. I started Blender at 80%. That first half was pretty rough, but does contain some of my favorite Sufferfest scenes.
Then I turned up the Pain Shakes to 85%. But by then my legs were well blended and I turned the threshold Minion Grinders at the end back to 80% and gritted it out.
With just 4 days to go in April I have exactly 4x9 Hammers remaining. That means nine today, 18 tomorrow, a recovery day on Wednesday, and then the final nine hammering on Thursday.
So for a single session of 9H on the first day of my fourth week I choose to go for 94% intensity. The synchronicity of the numerology played havoc with the left side of my brain that wanted logical suffering at an even 95%. It was truly suffering in more ways than one.
Tomorrow will of course be a whole lot of hammering. But the hammer-shaped light is quickly growing brighter. And yet somehow dimmer all at the same time.
180 hammers done
99 hammers remaining
