Monday morning rowing, low intensity recovery 10,000m piece for C2 Mud Season Madness:
Tuesday morning rowing, another low intensity 10,000m, this time interrupted several times by a Tesco delivery.
Tuesday evening archery, AGM this evening so no shooting.
Wednesday morning rowing, 2,000m (9:41.8) warm up, then C2 International Women’s Day Challenge, Concept 2 will donate $5.00 to charity for everyone who completes the required 5,000m piece
I decided this would be a good final test before my two 5,000m head races on Sunday as a good gauge of my current fitness level.
I warmed up with my usual 2,000m (9:41.8) warm up and then programmed the 5,000m piece.
I checked my PB split and decided I would try and do this piece at around 1:56/500m and 24spm as I was not intending to push for anything special.
You can see from the screenshot that this is not what happened.
After my initial push to a starting pace, I found I was at 1:53/500m, and feeling good, so decided to see if I could keep it up, the pace was also supposed to be around 24spm, but that also kept creeping up, although whenever it hit 26spm, I made a consious effort to drop it back to 24.
I counted down the strokes on each 1,000m as something to concentrate on, at this pace 1,000m is about 100 strokes, so it makes the counting fairly straight forward and gives mini milestones to aim for.
I started to tire at around 3,500m and it was a bit of a mental struggle to keep the rate and pace.
Once I see the remaining distance drop from 1,000m to 999m, I know I am on the home stretch and don’t need to hold anything in reserve, I can start to empty the tank.
I push the pace slightly, then with 500m to go start to push the rate as well as the pace, I was at 1:49 and 33spm for the last 100m, and my heart rate hit 181bpm as I crossed the line.
I thought my PB was 18:48, so when I saw the best I was going to manage was 18:55, I was not too worried.
As it happens I had misremembered my PB, it was actually 1:58.6 and I had just beaten it by 3 seconds!
At the time of completion I was placed 8th in the world out of around 300 participants, currently I am 11th out of about 400.
Spent about 3 or 4 minutes catching my breath and then did a 3,020m (14:24.7) cool down and some stretching, this takes me over the 10,000 for the day to count for Mud Season Madness.
Thursday morning rowing, 2,000m () warm up, then World Rowing Virtual Indoor Sprints, Row 1,000m as fast as you can between 8 and 12 March, you can have as many attempts as you like, your fastest time will be used for the results table.
2,000m (10:18.4) warm up, then spent the next 5-10 minutes psyching myself up for the 1,000m piece knowing it was going to be hell from the start.
Removed my Polar 10 chest strap as it was playing up and showing silly low heart rate values, HR will be from my watch instead.
3 half strokes to get the flywheel spinning and off we go
100m in 0:21.3, averaging 1:36/500m at 35spm, no way I am keeping this up, but use it while I can.
200m in 0:39.8, averaging 1:39/500m at 35spm, still feeling good
400m in 1:18.6, averaging 1:40/500m at 33spm, slowing down already on stroke rate, pace is still good.
500m in 1:39.6, 2 seconds off my 500m PB, still good, breathing is still comfortable.
600m in 2:00.7, pace dropping to 1:42 at 35spm, fatigue is starting to set in, rate compensating for pace
800m in 2:42.6, pace has dropped to 1:44 at 33spm, rate dropping as well, hang in there, only 20 strokes to go
1,000m in 3:23.8, pushed the rate to 36, but only manged to keep the previous pace
New PB by 0.9 seconds – I’ll take it, especially after yesterdays 5K PB for IWD.
Looks like the watch also had issues reporting my heart rate as it seems to have given up at 169bpm just after 500m, so I have no idea what my final heart rate was and my brain had stopped processing anything beyond preventing my body from giving up by that point anyway.
Spent the next 5 minutes catching my breath and calming down before finishing the session with a 7,023m (33:50.2) conditioning piece and some stretching (takes me over 10K for today for Mud Season Madness).
This currently places me 46/506 worldwide and 10/122 Heavyweight men 50-59, but this will drop as more people post times.
last year with a time of 3:24.7 I finished 147/1645 worldwide and 48/420 heavyweight men 50-59, so hoping for better placing this year.
Friday morning skiing, 10,00m piece for C2 Mud Season Madness:
Low effort piece as I don’t want to wear myself out for the weekend.
Saturday morning masters rowing, ‘Yellow Board Increasing’ and the landing stage half under water, we end up going out in an 8+ as the stream is too strong for most of the doubles options (9,173m).
After putting the 8+ away, we de-rigged our 4- and put it on the trailer ready for me to tow it up to Gloucester along with a double for the ladies masters and my single.
I am going up early as I intend to stay with my mother and step father in Newent which is only 30 minutes away from Gloucester.
Sunday rowing Gloucester Head of the River Race, please see separate post.