Monday was largely a rest day, as I was still feeling the effects of the ParkRun and the 1/2 marathon, although I did some extra walking to and from the garage where my car was having its MOT.
Tuesday calisthenics, repeated last Tuesday’s workout, but increased all of the reps and times a bit and added a reverse plank.
- Straight Arm Plank – 3 x 1:30
- Reverse Plank – 3 x 1:00
- Inverse Bent Knee Row – 3 x 6
- Full Squat – 3 x 20
- Bent Knee Row – 3 x 6
- Scapular Pull – 3 x 0:15
- Inverse Pull Up – 3 x 2
- Inverse Chin Up – 3 x 2
- Asian Squat – 1 x 6:00
Tuesday Evening archery – clout shooting with longbows, scored better than last week, but only just (2 scored!)
Wednesday rowing, 2km warm up, 10km fat burner and 2.2km cool down, not really ‘into it’, so kept the pace slow and steady.
I was looking at my force curves for most of the warm up to see how smooth my individual strokes were, having never actually analysed them before, and was happy that they looked good and largely matched the ‘ideal curve’.
Thursday calisthenics, repeated last Thursday’s workout, but increased most of the reps and times
- Incline Push Ups – 3 x 10 – parallettes and knees
- Full Squat – 3 x 20
- Hip Bridge – 3 x 1:00
- Bent Knee L Sit – 3 x 0:10 – on parallettes
- Frog Stand – 3 x 0:10
- Lying Knee Tuck 3 x 30
- Lying Alternate Knee Tuck 3 x 20
- Bar Support Hold 3 x 0:25
- Band Assisted Dip 3 x 6
Friday rowing: 2000m time trial
I was finally feeling in a good enough place mentally to retry the time trial after blowing up on 28th March and listening to the voice in my head that was telling me to stop.
10 minute warm up of about 2300m including 4 sets of ’10 strokes hard’ at somewhere around the pace I wanted to do the Time Trial.
Cooled off for a few minutes and had a few sips of water and then onto the main event.
Started off well, possibly a little too fast, although it actually felt slow!
Passed 500m in 1:42.5 at a steady 32spm and feeling strong (4s off my 500m PB).
Cruised through 1000m in 3:29.7 (31spm), only 5s off my 1K PB and still feeling good.
Just short of 1500m and the voice in my head started screaming at me, I was struggling to breathe and I stopped between 5:13 and 5:27 to catch my breath before continuing on (new 1500m PB by 6s at 5:21.0).
Passed 1609m (1 mile) at 5:44.9, new mile PB by 8 seconds.
Stopped again at 1820m between 6:33 and 6:44 again to catch my breath before throwing everything into the last 200m.
Finished with a time of 7:14.4, frustratingly still short of that 7 minute barrier – the 25 seconds of stoppages cost me that goal.
4.3 seconds shaved off my PB is still a big win and I am happy with that time, especially considering the stoppages.
This has proved to me that I can do it, I just need a little more stamina and a bit more mental strength to shut out the demons in my head.
Finished off the session with an 11 minute 2222m cool down and some stretching.
Saturday rowing was my first marathon (42,195m) attempt for the Concept 2 Marathon and Century Challenge, so this would be an automatic PB.
Decided against a warm up as the distance was long enough that going slow and steady should be enough of a warm up in itself.
Extreme backside pain from around 1.5 hours, I think my backside finally beat the seat into submission by the end – either that or I lost the ability to feel in my backside.
Half marathon was passed in 1:42:38.1, (2:25.9 split), so was unlikely to be a great time if I kept to that pace, I was looking at something like 3:25:00 for the full distance.
From about 28km I upped the pace to around 2:15, then at 38km upped it again to around 2:05, the main problem was that although I could maintain close to 8 minute/2km pace, I kept having to stop to ease various pains.
I brought it home at sub 2:00 pace for the last 1km or so, the last 200m showing 1:56. for a final time of 3:18:52.3, under 3:20:00.
I had been hoping for a few minutes faster, but with all of the stoppages, I was not entirely surprised and am happy with the result.
I knew I could manage the distance, and it did not really feel like twice the 1/2 marathon distance, but I don’t see myself doing many more of these, except when there is a specific challenge that calls for one, it is just too long on the Erg for my liking.
I am happy to row multiple 1/2 marathons, they only take just over an hour and a half, so only 30 minutes longer than my normal workout, 3+ hours is not really my cup of tea,
This completes the marathon half of the Concept 2 Global Marathon and Century Challenge.
Sunday I had a rest with no rowing, although I did take the dog for a nice long walk after it stopped raining.