The Dark Horse rowing challenge for February is to row from Dana to Petra in Jordan a distance of 75,000m, your time for the journey starts with your first workout and finishes when you pass 75Km, warm up and cool down meters do not count towards the total.
I decided to do this as 3 x 25,000m pieces on 3 consecutive days.
Monday morning rowing, My desert ship, ‘Dark Horse’
and I start our journey in Dana, a modern village near the city of Tafilah which has only been occupied for around 500 years and believed to have been built by Bedouins from the Al Ata’ata tribe during the Ottoman Empire, although there has been human occupation of the site for around 6,000 years prior to the creation of the village.
We spent a very comfortable night at the ‘2 camel’ resort of the Tower Hotel in Dana.
We are up early to meet with our guide for the journey – one Mustapha Quad, who was recommended to us by Lo Stro Krate of Ro Wing Adventure Tours.
We start off with a slight detour to pick up a couple of other local sights, firstly we hit the Hobbit Village camping farm
before heading around the top edge of the natural canyon, Wadi Dana to take in the magnificent view down its length.
We continue round the top edge of the canyon towards Rumana Camp that has some wonderful wind blown rock formations.
We then took the somewhat steeper route down the side of the canyon rather than that of simply following the valley down to the Wadi Al Ghwer camp ground.
We then followed the path of the river bed before heading up slightly to the Feynan Heritage Museum
and then a final short trek to our camp ground for the night at the Fenynan Wild Camp
Total distance for the day is 25,000m, in a time under 2 hours, with 1:36.44.8 for the 1/2 marathon.
Watched the film ‘The Menu’ to pass the time.
Tuesday morning rowing Dana to Petra Day 2
Mustapha Quad wakes me up bright and early, and I pack up our belongings onto ‘Dark Horse’ for today’s journey that starts from the Feynan Wild Camp where we spent the night.
Heading up into the hills on the Umm Al Amad Road in search of the Umm Al Ammad ‘Mother of Pillars’ Cave.
The cave is not believed to be natural, but is the result of slaves from the Khirbat Faynan penitentiary carving out copper during the time of the Roman Empire.
A little further along the trail we reach Um Al-Rakhm – possibly Jordan’s answer to Mt Rushmore or the Sphinx?
After hitting the top of the ridge, we then head down towards Shobak, a municipality with a population of around 19,000 and is at one of the highest elevations above sea level in Jordan and is famous for its apple and fruit farms.
Next we head in a more southerly direction to Shamakh which is an abandoned stone village.
Finally we head take our longest trek of the day to Ferky’s View where we will spend the night.
The path for today’s travels:
Does anyone else think that the settlements to the right between Shamakh and Ferky’s View looks amazingly like Mickey Mouse from Steamboat Willie?
Total distance for today is again 25,000m
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone.
Tuesday evening archery
Wednesday morning rowing, Dana to Petra day 3 – the final day of our ‘quick dash’ to Petra, Mustapha Quad and I wake up early to load up ‘Dark Horse’ for one last trek.
We set off from Fekry’s View and head just down the road to a viewpoint on Little Petra Valley.
We then head up the hill to Ba’Ja, the stone age settlement built in about 7000 BC during the pre-pottery Neilithic B period with a mystery burial of a child who has been named Jamila.
The above is a reconstruction of what the village is believed to have looked like.
We then head along the ridge to Al-Baydha, another Neolithic village where the Nabataeen have been carving away at the rocks.
We continue along the ridge to its highest point where we see the tomb of the high priest Aaron, the supposed burial place of the brother of Moses, according to Jewish, Christian and Muslim tradition.
We then head down the hillside to enter Petra via the Al-Siq entrance
We arrive in Petra, the capital of the Nabataeen kindom after dark to a beautiful candlelit display in front of the Al Khazneh temple also known as the Treasury.
That completes our journey from Dana to Petra and we have to say goodbye to ‘Dark Horse’, our trusty desert ship and our wonderful guide Mustapha Quad.
I am sure we will be engaging the services of Ro Wing Adventure Tours again at some point in the near future.
Map for today’s journey:
I had to go into work today so completed this third leg in the office gym and did not have the option of watching a film to relieve the boredom.
After the first 5,000m had taken what seemed like an eternity, I decided I needed to do something to make it more interesting.
Yesterday’s 25K was 5 minutes faster than the first one, so I decided to see if I could knock off another 5 minutes for a 1 hour 50 minute finish, so I concentrated on lowering the split on every 5K by at least 2 seconds.
I was hoping for sub 20 minutes on the last round, but I had dropped the split too much on the 4th round and my body rebelled and I had to pause a few times to catch my breath, although I did still managed to finish with a 1:54 final 500m.
I then needed an additional 1, 134m (6:12) to work out the lactic acid before heading for the shower.
Thursday I am taking this as a rest day ahead of my 2K skiErg tomorrow for the C2 Tour de SkiErg Challenge.
Friday skiing,
Having already done the 75Km from Dana to Petra this week, I took yesterday off as a rest day.
I then had a bad night and was awake for several hours, so after walking the dog this morning I really did not want to do the 2,000m Time Trial.
1,000m (5:26.4) warm up and then looked at what my current PB was for setting a pace skiier.
Time to beat was 8:11.0, so 2:02.8 it is for the pace skiier.
I started on pace but fatigue from the week started showing early and after a brief period of being ahead my a couple of meters at about 500m, I started to slowly drop back.
I did manage to hold the 2:04-2:06 pace for the remainder of the piece even though it involved raising the stroke rate a bit to keep it.
Finished 7.4 seconds off my PB from last October, and 29m behind the pace skiier, so given how I was feeling before I started, I will gladly take that as a win.
Finished off the session with a 1,136 (6:41.5) cool down.
3 down and only the 10,000m to go, I am currently sitting with an average pace of 2:03.5 across the 3 events so far.
Saturday morning masters rowing, 2,000m (8:18.3) warm up followed by a 2 hour outing in an 8+ that I did not enjoy.
First, we are supposed to be preparing for Gloucester Head race which is 5,000m where I entered in my single and also in a 4- with 3 of the other masters men, so why are we in an 8+?
Second, I have been bumped from my usual stroke seat and am sat at #6.
Third, the person who has replaced me at stroke, can’t hold a rate and spent the entire session soaking #7, me and #5 every time he squared his blade.
Fourth, but unrelated to the session in the 8+, I was being accused of potentially compromising the 4- 5K in the afternoon at Gloucester by racing the 5K in my single in the morning.
I had suggested to him that he race me over a 5K on a day that I had done a heavy workout in the morning and he was fresh – strangely he did not reply to that email.
After the 13,325m masters session, that involved a technical warm up, steady state rowing and a few power pieces, I was soaking wet and not in the best of moods.
To make matters worse I foundI had left my shorts at home, so ended up walking into Staines to buy my lunch in my All in One and various tops, the top one was a Hi-viz yellow cycling jacket, so at least people were likely to assume I was a cyclist and not just some weirdo in Lycra.
After returning to the boat club, I ate my Thai spicy chicken and rice I had bought at the market on my own in the clubhouse and also had some sweets for the sugar.
After waiting about 20 minutes I decided I had about 30 minutes before the 12:30 leisure session which should be more than enough for a 5K and a cool down.
One of the challenges for the Gloucester crew was to either do 2 x 5K with 4:00 rest or 1 x 5K hard, I had done 3 x 25K and a 2K SkiErg TT, so thought I would just do the 5K hard.
The Erg I used was a C2 model D with a PM5, although the firmware is a little out of date, plus it has issues tracking my HR via my chest strap, so ignore the HR line on the graph.
Most of it felt comfortable at around 1:53 and 28spm, I did try and reign it back to 26spm several times, but my body seemed happiest at 28.
Counting down the meters to each 1K really helped to keep me focused mentally.
First 2K was 8:32.4 and last 2K was 8:37.8, maximum variation of pace over the entire piece was only 2.4 seconds, so I am very happy with how I paced it.
I ended up with a new personal best by 19.4 seconds and my first sub 19 minute 5K.
Just shows what some pent up frustration can do for you when you take it out on the Erg.
After catching my breath I did a 1,150m (5:29.3) cool down and had another handful of sweets before heading out for the leisure rowing session.
I was told I was going out in my single ‘Dark Horse’ today, so at least I could set my own pace.
I concentrated on form and building more confidence, I don’t think I took the rate above 22spm for the 4,119m outing.
Sunday morning masters rowing, 2,000m (8:36.3) warm up, then 4- Gloucester crew with me back in the stroke seat and a substitute at #2.
We did a warm up against the stream then turned and did a 2K piece at 26spm hitting 1:50/500m with the stream, then back up to the top at 22spm steady state before a second strong piece of around 3,200m that was supposed to be 24spm and full pressure which we maintained at around 1:53/500m for the first half.
What happened next is that the boys quad turned around from where they had been sat and decided to chase us down, last weekend we managed to hold off the boys double, but the quad just about caught us by the time we reached the bottom, there was no way I was letting that happen again this week.
I kept the rate at around 24 at the beginning, but allowed it to slowly creep up to 26 after another 800m, shortly after this I ‘caught a crab’ which almost brought us to a standstill but recovered quickly and carried on, now upping the rate to 28.
We reached the bottom of the course and the quad had made no significant gains on us, so we were happy with the overall outcome.
On the way back up, we were rating at about 20spm and half pressure when the boys again decided they were overhauling us, however we did not have to make it easy for them, so we kept the rate but upped the pressure slightly just to make them work for their gains.
After they had passed us, and were a little ahead, we upped the rate to about 24 to start narrowing the gap, then put on a burst at 30spm to catch and overhaul them before we finally went in after a total of 11,740m.
After a cup of tea, I walked into Staines and had McDonnalds for breakfast before heading back to the boat club.
On my way back, whilst walking along the towpath, I saw a 6 man outrigger boat heading towards Staines Bridge.
Shortly afterwards I happened across a family of ducks heading down to the water.
I then took my single out for another confidence building session and put in 6,573m mainly at 22-24spm.
Sunday afternoon leisure rowing, I was assigned to the stroke seat in an 8+, this outing was mainly technical and I don’t think we went over 18spm the entire session.
