As crazy as the behaviour of endurance athletes unquestionably seems ("Seems, madam? Nay, it is-- I know not 'seems.'"), mention the acronym "LSD" to them and they won't immediately look shifty and ask you who your dealer is. (Nor, if they happen to live in the Chicago area, will they necessarily think of Lake Shore Drive-- though that *is* a fun, if pothole-ridden, place to ride one's bike on the few occasions during the year that one is allowed to.)
Nope. "LSD," to someone who trains for endurance events like triathlons, marathons, ultramarathons, century rides, etc., stands for "Long Slow Distance." In many training plans, it's the short form for the longest run/ride/whatever of one's training week. For many of us, LSDs are done on weekends, since that's when we're most likely to have time to complete however long our activity is for the day. Sundays are my LSD day for marathon training, so today's task was a relatively straightforward 8 miles at a 30-seconds-slower-than-projected-marathon-pace.
Straightforward, yes. Easy? Not exactly-- oddly enough, it's hard to run slowly! I certainly felt like I was merely plodding along today, particularly since I had to overcome a case of the don'wannas beforehand (a litany that usually goes something like "It's cold/grey/windy/raining...I'm tired...I don'wanna run!" to which the only reply is "HTFU* and Get On With It!"). But with the exception of a mile somewhere in the middle, my pace was decidedly faster than I should have been going according to the prescribed plan.
Clearly I'm accustomed to running at a faster pace; but with the addition of extra mileage, the plan's insistence on slowing things down makes considerable sense. The point of LSDs is not to finish utterly drained, but to feel strong all the way through, however long the distance. I've done 8-milers before, so that's probably a temptation to get them done faster. But once I hit the double-digit runs in a couple of weeks, I'm sure I'll be glad of the slower pace-- so I must work on slowing down on the slow days, while speeding up on the fast days. The combination is what leads to success, I'm told.
Since my training plan also calls for cross-training as part of my weekly workouts, I'm incorporating cycling into my schedule: shorter (usually 45 minutes to an hour) rides on my bike trainer** early in the morning on workdays, then an LSD ride (outdoors with a group if possible, indoors on my bike trainer if not) on Saturday mornings. Yesterday's ride was a 2-hour trainer ride while watching Die Hard 2 for the first time since it came out and being highly amused by all the incongruities with current airport practices. Silly and/or action and/or comically bad movies will, no doubt be a major incentive for those long hours on the trainer-- it's considerably harder to put in a 2-hour trainer ride than to ride for 2 hours outside, since on a trainer you have no coasting, no gravity to help you, and no interesting scenery to look at as you go by. At such times, cinematic fluff to take my mind off of the monotony is EXACTLY what this doctor ordered.
Besides, you gotta love the multitasking: I get my mental floss and my long workout at the same time. So perhaps one could call this form of LSD a mind-altering substance after all...
* HTFU = A common triathlon acronym, short for "Harden The Fuck Up." Frequently said as a form of tough encouragement to those whose motivation seems to be waning. Also a useful retort to get chronic whiners or complainers to shut up.
** bike trainer = A vaguely medieval-looking torture device that one clamps onto one's rear wheel, lifting said wheel off the ground and placing it against a steady source of resistance. Cheap trainers use fans for resistance-- inexpensive but VERY noisy. Better ones use fluid-- smoother and quieter, but it does take a few minutes to warm up. Ultra-chic ones are frequently attached to power meters-- TONS of fabulous data, but insanely expensive. Trainers are tortuous, especially on long rides, but they're unbeatable for convenience and indispensable in seasons when snow, ice, and other nastiness make roads potentially lethal for cyclists.
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