Ultra Short Training At Race Pace

Psychologically, I do better with a set number of repeats in mindset rather than a "go until you fail" system, even if that means I slightly fall off my desired race pace. I hear you on this and feel the same way. I just can't seem to get my head around the idea that I stop a set half way through. 30 x 50 on 50 seconds should be just that. Stopping on the 12th repeat not only robs be of a sense of achievement that comes from completing a long set, but also robs me of that wonderful high I get from sore muscles and overall exhaustion that I can savor when I relax in the hot tub. I have been dabbling with USRPT sets recently but setting myself target times that I can make so I get to complete the whole set. Recently I realized that this was probably defeating the whole point of the exercise. So yesterday I got in and gave myself the target time that I want to achieve this season and found that it was no walk in the park. it took a huge effort not to fail by the sixth repeat. It was so exhausting that even though I hadn't failed I stopped anyway in anticipation of failure. For sure I would have failed on the seventh repeat. I decided that was enough for the day and that I would take stock in the hot tub and strategize for tomorrow. So that is where I am at the moment. I am off to the pool now but am scared of the exhaustion I felt yesterday and am already thinking a set of 10 x 100's on 1:45 sounds like a good idea for a main set. Or maybe I should be trying yesterdays set again and trying to get to the seventh repeat before failure. I don't know. I will see how I feel when I get there.

Psychologically, I do better with a set number of repeats in mindset rather than a "go until you fail" system, even if that means I slightly fall off my desired race pace. I hear you on this and feel the same way. I just can't seem to get my head around the idea that I stop a set half way through. 30 x 50 on 50 seconds should be just that. Stopping on the 12th repeat not only robs be of a sense of achievement that comes from completing a long set, but also robs me of that wonderful high I get from sore muscles and overall exhaustion that I can savor when I relax in the hot tub. I have been dabbling with USRPT sets recently but setting myself target times that I can make so I get to complete the whole set. Recently I realized that this was probably defeating the whole point of the exercise. So yesterday I got in and gave myself the target time that I want to achieve this season and found that it was no walk in the park. it took a huge effort not to fail by the sixth repeat. It was so exhausting that even though I hadn't failed I stopped anyway in anticipation of failure. For sure I would have failed on the seventh repeat. I decided that was enough for the day and that I would take stock in the hot tub and strategize for tomorrow. So that is where I am at the moment. I am off to the pool now but am scared of the exhaustion I felt yesterday and am already thinking a set of 10 x 100's on 1:45 sounds like a good idea for a main set. Or maybe I should be trying yesterdays set again and trying to get to the seventh repeat before failure. I don't know. I will see how I feel when I get there.