Why I Program Distance When Finishing Is the Goal
The other day, I battled the tool of Beelzebub himself…
…the Concept2 rower.
After the first 60 seconds of my 2K, my heart rate was already much higher than usual.
My brain immediately started banging excuses around like an empty tin can trapped inside a clothes dryer.
I’m tired, and today is not going to produce a great time.
My energy has been off lately, and I’m still getting over a bit of a cold.
You were traveling on the flying germ tube. Maybe you caught another bug from the guy coughing up a lung three rows behind you.
Around the halfway point, the Concept2 monitor stopped looking like exercise equipment and started looking like a tiny black judge sentencing me to several more minutes in the aerobic electric chair.
Then it clicked.
This was not a performance session anymore.
It was a distress-tolerance session.
The goal had changed from producing a great time to finishing the assignment.
I did a quick systems check.
No chest pain, dizziness, sharp pain, unusual shortness of breath or technique breakdown.
Just a high heart rate, a lousy day and a brain making enough noise to wake the dead.
No way out now.
My #1 Rule for Cardio Training
My number one rule for myself and my clients:
Program time when you want an escape hatch.
Program distance when completion is the assignment.
Say your normal 2K takes around eight minutes.
If you put 8:00 on the monitor, you have programmed a set amount of time. You can adjust the pace, shorten the effort or stop early if something legitimately feels wrong.
Punch 2,000 meters into the monitor, however, and you finish the distance, unless a legitimate stop sign appears.
Sharp pain, chest pain, dizziness, unusual shortness of breath or technique falling apart?
Stop.
Regular cardiovascular misery?
Sorry, Charlie.
You decided to program a distance, so you keep going.
What Are You Actually Training?
Your performance may not be great that day.
Fine.
What are you actually training?
Can you hold decent form when the session turns into hot sewer water?
Will you stay focused?
Are you able to prevent your brain from running the movie ahead, imagining the collapse at 700 meters, your funeral at 500 and your family dividing up your lifting straps before you reach the finish?
During hard cardio, your brain integrates heart rate, ventilation, heat, muscle tension, metabolite accumulation, previous experience and how much work remains.
All of that gets converted into perceived effort.
Your job is to stop negotiating with meters that do not exist yet.
Finish this stroke.
Take the next one.
DRIVE with your legs and do not let your torso turn into a wet noodle.
Origins of This Rule
I created this rule after noticing that a few clients, and yours truly, would stop a retest once it became obvious that a PR was not going to happen.
Then the next test arrived.
Same problem.
Our brains had discovered the escape hatch and knew exactly where to find it.
That is why every distance-based test in the Meathead Cardio system has one rule:
Finish the distance.
Stopping simply because the performance is disappointing is no longer an option.
Stay present.
Maintain your mechanics.
Push on.
Discomfort Is Temporary
I did several 5Ks during my first winter in Costa Rica years ago.
Hot.
Slow as dirt by the end.
Absolutely miserable.
Afterward, I fell off the rower and lay there like a large, sweaty appliance waiting for roadside pickup while white buffalos floated across the sky.
…but I lived.
Each ugly session became another piece of evidence that discomfort can climb very high without the universe splitting open.
Several minutes later, I was fine.
The misery was temporary.
My Latest 2K Rower Test
My latest 2K sucked large moose ballZ.
Still got done.
A training time of 7:44.8 was nothing earth-shattering, although it was close to my previous 2K at the same RPE of 8/10.
2K time: 7:44.8
Average pace: 1:56.2/500 m
Average heart rate: 147 bpm
Max heart rate: 165 bpm
Time parked in Zone 5: 44%
I did the thing I said I was going to do, the best I could on that day.
More importantly, I kept my promise to myself.
Time vs. Distance: Decide Before You Start
You still get to decide what contract you sign before the session starts.
I could have programmed 7:45 as a time-based effort and left myself an escape hatch.
Instead, I programmed 2,000 meters.
Most sessions are not super high intensity.
When it is go time, however, you F-ing go.
Want the exact cardio protocols I use to build a larger aerobic engine without feeding your GainZ into an industrial wood chipper?
Check out Flexible Meathead Cardio.
