I hate split days, really hate them. I hate them far more than any amount of energy expended to actually do them. To train, come home and try and recover, not in any true sense of the word but at least have a shower, and then back out the door again with stiff legs and zero morale. It’s not as if I have an aversion to hard training, after all I am the retard that over trained to the point of chronic fatigue on two consecutive seasons. But I like my training straight up, and even more, I like my recovery uninterrupted. As close to 24 hours as possible and definitely with three square meals and a good sleep included.
I’ve yet to be convinced that split days actually work any better than just training for once a day. I think that the only thing they do for me is serve as an accurate gauge as to just how motivated I was when I sat down to write my training programme. The keener and more excitable I am, the greater the frequency of the split day. I wrote my current plan in sun drenched Lanzarote, having had my feet up all afternoon and in the middle of a big week. Morale was high, hence three days after getting home I’m sneaking out the front door and into morning rush hour traffic to do some dirty intervals.
As far as days go it was as close to perfect for a split session as possible, certainly in winter. Sun shining, Barrow Gurney Cycling Club coffee morning to take my mind off the first session of the day, then yet more feet up time before re-chammying and cruising about for another couple of hours. But there’s no denying it, my second outing of the day was miserable, I felt rotten and I just wish I’d got it done in the morning.
But once it’s written in the plan, there’s no going back. Well, there is but only rarely. In this instance there was no excuse, so I pressed on. On Saturday, I’m doing it again, then praise the Lord I can wait nearly a month before the next one. When all is said and done though, the misery of a split day is just part and parcel of the suffering that is riding a bike, and I generally enjoy that.
