Monday morning rowing, 2,000m (10:05.6) warm up, 10,000m for the C2 January Team Challenge.
Decided to push a little harder again today. 2,242m (11:12.4) cool down and stretching
Day 23, the daily total is 1 day, 14,242m, 843 calories and 1 hour 4 minutes, running totals are: 23 days, 278,003m, 15,324 calories and 22 hours 34 minutes.
I started a new job yesterday (actually I returned to the same job I left just over a year ago).
Today was my first day in the office, I was supposed to go yesterday, but the laptop was not ready.
The office for the new/old job is 3 minutes walk from my rowing club, so I decided to go in early and use one of the club Ergs for a workout.
Even at 06:15, the 17 mile drive took 45 minutes, so I arrived at the boat club at just gone 07:00, struggled to see the numbers on the combination lock on the gate to let myself in, changed and setup on one of the Ergs.
2,000m (9:27.4) warm up – there is no heating at our club house and the outside temperature was just below freezing, so even after the warm up my fingers were frozen from holding a handle that had been cold all night.
Started into the 10K and quickly noticed that based on my split and rate that this could be a fast one.
I had not set a pace boat, but for reference it would have been at 1:57.7 for the 39:16.4 current PB.
500m in 1:57.7, 19.3 seconds down on my 500m PB, not breaking any records here, level with the pace boat.
1,000m in 3:58.0, 33.3 seconds down on my 1K PB, not a sprint, 10m down on the pace boat.
2,000m in 7:49.3, 34.9 seonds down on my 2K PB, let’s try and maintain this, 8m up on the pace boat.
4,000m in 15:35.4, 18.5 seconds down on my 4K PB, 7:46.5 for the second 2K, looking good, 30m up on the pace boat.
5,000m in 19:29.6, 11.6 seconds down on my 5K PB, still going strong, 36m up on the pace boat.
6,000m in 23:23.6, New 6K PB by 9.4 seconds, 7:47.8 for the third 2K, still looking good, 42m up on the pace boat.
8,000m in 31:13.3, New 8K PB by 14.4 seconds, 7:49.9 for the 4th 2K, lets push for the finish, 49m up on the pace boat.
10,000m in 38:52.5, New PB by 23.9 seconds, 7:39.0 for the last 2K, 1:51.3 for the last 500m, 100m up on the pace boat.
Second 5,000m was 19:22.9, so only 4.9 seconds off my 5K PB, looks like I should do one of these at some point to see if I can push this below 19 minutes.
I am convinced that the frigid air in the Erg room helped as I didn’t even break a sweat until well after the first 5K.
I paced it well being within sight of a 39 minute finish for most of the workout and put on a good charge for the finish line in the last 2K, sprinting for the last 500m with a pace of under 1:50/500m and pushing the rate up to 35 for my first sub 39 minute 10K.
Finished off with a 2,243m (10:31.9) cool down and some stretching before showering and heading over to the office.
Day 24, the daily total is 1 day, 14,243m, 926 calories and 58 minutes, running totals are: 24 days, 292,246m, 16,250 calories and 23 hours 33 minutes.
Wednesday morning rowing in the Bupa Gym, 2,000m (9:06.7) warm up, foot straps became very loose even on the warm up, not hopeful for the main 10,000m piece.
Stopped 5 times to re-tighten the foot straps, fortunately I was only doing a rate capped piece. finished off with a 2,256m (10:47.0) cool down and some stretching.
Day 25, the daily total is 1 day, 14,256m, 856 calories and 1 hour 3 minutes, running totals are: 25 days, 306,502m, 17,106 calories and 24 hours 37 minutes.
Thursday morning rowing, 2,000m (10:09.2) warm up, then a very easy UT2 10,000m.
Kept my heart rate below 110 for 90% of the workout. finished off with a 2,246m (11:33.2) cool down and some stretching.
Day 26, the daily total is 1 day, 14,246m, 779 calories and 1 hour 10 minutes, running totals are: 26 days, 320,748m, 17,885 calories and 25 hours 47 minutes.
Friday morning skiing, 2,000m (11:44.1) warm up, then 10,000m for the C2 Virtual Team Challenge.
Set a maintainable pace that was not going to break any records, buy had a push to the finish in the last 2,000m and a bit more of a sprint in the last 500m, then a 2,245m (14:08.0) cool down.
Day 27, the daily total is 1 day, 14,245m, 756 calories and 1 hour 15 minutes, running totals are: 27 days, 334,993m, 18,641 calories and 27 hours 3 minutes.
Saturday morning rowing, still ‘Red Boards’ on the river last night, so not getting out on the water yet again today.
I decided I would do a 1/2 marathon to boost my meters in the C2 Virtual Team Challenge.
I don’t bother with a warm up for my 1/2 marathons, they are long enough that they can be their own warm up.
My current PB is 1:29:48.1 (2:07.7/500m) so I set this as the pace boat.
1,000m in 4:14.3, 4m up on the pace boat, warming up nicely at 24spm and 2:07/500m
2,000m in 8:29.8, 4m up on the pace boat, still feeling good, early days still
4,000m in 16:57.8, 15m up on the pace boat, 8:28.0 for the 2K, the pace is still feeling good
6,000m in 25:28.5, 15m up on the pace boat, 8:30.7 for the 2K, holding strong
8,000m in 33:58.4, 19m up on the pace boat, 8:29.9 for the 2K, still doing fine
10,000m in 42:27.9, 24m up on the pace boat, 8:29.5 for the 2K, nearly half way
12:000m in 50:56.1, 34m up on the pace boat, 8:28.2 for the 2K, upped the rating to 26spm, and split to 2:05/500m
14,000m in 59:09.8, 101m up on the pace boat, 8:13.7 for the 2K, pushed rating up to 27, split to 2:00/500m
16,000m in 1:07:11.7, 215m up on the pace boat, 8:01.9 for the 2K, just over 5K to go
18,000m in 1:15:26.4, 277m up on the pace boat, 8:14.7 for the 2K, hold on, just over 3K to go
20:000m in 1:23:40.4, 343m up on the pace boat, 8:14.0 for the 2K, just over 1K to go, push the rate and pace again.
Pushed the rate to 30 with 500m to go, finished at a rate of 33 and a pace of 1:52/500m
21,097m in 1:27:58.8, 428m up on the pace boat, New PB by 1:49.3
last 2K time was 7:58.4, last 500m time was 1:56.0
I fell I paced it well and am very happy with the overall result.
To ease the boredom, I watched Hugh Jackman and Rachael Weisz in ‘The Fountain’.
Finished off the session with a 2,244m (10:46.4) cool down and some stretching.
On the plus side There is a chance of some rowing on the water tomorrow as the level has dropped and so has the flow.
Landing stage on 30 December:
Landing stage on 24 January:
Landing stage this morning:
Hopefully we will get out on the water tomorrow, as it is now ‘Green Boards’, we just need to navigate around the sunken hazard to get out.
Day 28, the daily total is 1 day, 23,341m, 1465 calories and 1 hour 38 minutes, running totals are: 28 days, 358,334m, 20,106 calories and 28 hours 42 minutes.
This completes my ‘Big Burn’ challenge of 20,000 calories.
Sunday morning masters rowing.
I was hoping to get out on the river this morning, however only four of the masters men turned up, one being the club president who has recently returned from a Caribbean cruise and did not feel like steering a quad with the ‘yellow boards’ flow (posted as green!), so Ergs it was.
2,000m (9:07.3) warm up, then we agreed on doing a 10K (or as close to it as people could manage).
I forgot to bring my Polar 10 chest strap with me, so heart rate is a bit hit and miss from my watch.
I rowed most of it at around 1:56/500m and 24-25spm, this was not supposed to be a time trial, especially after yesterday’s PB on the 1/2 marathon, I had told myself that this was just going to be a steady state row.
Well that idea went out of the window with about 3,000m to go. Ego started kicking in big time. I initially just raised the rating to 26spm, but was not really dropping the pace.
With 2,000m to go I decided to just go for it and pushed the rating between 28 and 30 and the pace to 1:52/500m.
With 500m to go, I pushed the rating again to around 33 and the pace to 1:49-1:50/500m.
By this stage the others had finished (they only did 8,000m – lightweights!) and the club president was calling out tips to me and urging me on to the finish with words of encouragement.
I didn’t think this was going to be a PB, I thought I was about a minute below Monday’s time, it was only when I checked after my 2,243m (10:35.2) cool down that I realised I had beaten Monday’s time by 12.3 seconds for my third PB in less than 7 days (two for 10K and one for a 1/2 marathon).
I headed into Staines for a well earned cooked breakfast before coming back to the club for the afternoon Leisure rowing session.
I was still early, so did another 2,000m (9:14.1) warm up for the OTW session.
I was assigned a leisure double with one of the more experienced ladies, I agreed to take the bow seat and handle the steering.
Only around 4,000m, the first half of which was against the stream, we were trying to stay within sight of the leisure quads, and not pull away from them too much, so were just doing pick drills and pause paddling, and by the time we reached the top we were barely warmed up.
On the return, with the stream, we did 10 strokes light 10 strokes firm as the quads seemed to be making better progress.
Day 29, the daily total is 1 day, 16,243m, 1041 calories and 1 hour 7 minutes, running totals are: 29 days, 374,577m, 21,147 calories and 29 hours 49 minutes.