Monday rest day.
Tuesday morning, in at work, as there is a ‘leaving do’ this evening and I will also be out on the water with the masters men
2,000m (9:50.7) warm up, then the C2 WoD which is 6,5,4,3,2,1 minute max effort drop set, with 1 minute rest.
Probably went out too aggressively on the first interval as I could not maintain the pace for the second one and had to pause just before the 2 minute mark to catch my breath, this cost me on the average pace for this interval dropping me from 1:50 to 1:54.
Recovered better for the remaining intervals and was able to drop the average pace each time until I was back near the first interval pace for the last minute.
One minute rest goes so fast, by the time I have recovered my lungs and put in a few recovery strokes it is already time to start again, this was certainly not fun and a major sweat fest.
1,704 + 283 = 1,983m, for the first and last intervals, 1:45.9 average or 7:03.6 for a 2K so about 2 strokes short of a sub 7 minute 2K, happy with that.
1,308 + 549 = 1,857m, for the second and fifth intervals, 1:53 average or 7:32 for a 2K.
1,069 + 806 = 1,875m for the third and fourth intervals, 1:52 average or 7:28 for a 2K.
Total distance of 5,719m at an average pace of 1:50.1 or 7:20.4 for 3 x 2K back to back, again happy with the result, shame about the minor blow up in the second interval.
This placed me 8/171 at the time of completion (1st in UK!), which has already dropped to 12/273 (2nd in UK) a few hours later
Ultimately I finished 54/1492 worldwide 2/165 55-59, 8/217 in UK and 1/37 55-59.
5,015m (24:55.6) cool down and stretching before showering and up to my desk for a meeting after which I went and had some breakfast in the canteen.
Afterwork it was over to the ‘Slug and Lettuce’ for drinks and then back to the boat club for the masters mens session: 4-, stroke seat, warm up, steady state, then starts against the senior mens crew 9,617m.
Wednesday morning rowing, 2,000m (10:30.5) warm up, then 10 laps of the C2 real time loop, slowly increasing the pace and rate.
2,235m cool down and some stretching.
Thursday morning back at work for another ‘leaving do’, 2,000m (9:28.7), then another 10 laps of the C2 Real Time Loop, alternating between ‘fast’ laps at around 1:52/500m and ‘slow’ laps at around 2:05/500m.
2,235m (10:38.4) cool down and stretching before a shower and then breakfast in the canteen.
Thursday evening back to the ‘Slug and Lettuce’ for drinks and then back to the boat club for leisure rowing, leisure 4x, #3 seat, warm up and power pyramid 6,342m.
Friday rest day.
Saturday morning rowing, 5,011m (21:38.6) warm up for masters rowing, 4-, Stroke seat, warm up, steady state and starts and leap-frog against the masters 4x 8,786m.
Walk into Staines for my usual Thai spicy chicken and rice, before heading back for the leisure session where I was teaching sculling to one of the leisure rowers 5,509m.
Sunday morning rowing, 4,013m (18:15.1) warm up then out with the masters men this morning in a coxless four, I was in the #2 seat for a change.
We had completed our warm up and were doing a steady state piece from the top to the bottom of our section of the river.
Just through the railway bridge on the way to the bottom for some side by side racing, we hear a horn and a scream from the bow steersman to hold up the boat.
Out of nowhere there is a narrow boat bearing down on us, I desperately try and get in a few strokes whilst shipping my oar and also trying to push off the boat that appeared to be ‘aiming’ for our mid section.
The narrow boat hits our stroke rigger and despite me doing my best to throw my body weight over the bow side of the boat, bodies are starting to slide into water on stroke side pulling the boat over and eventually I have to go with the momentum and we are all swimming with an upside down boat.
The narrow boat continued on, the people on the narrow boat don’t apologise, acknowledge what has happened or even ask if we are ok!
We swim the boat over to the bank and the senior mens crew passes us and then goes back to the club house to send a launch out for us.
The club captain comes out in a launch and steadies the boat after we turn it back over, while we all climb back in.
We then wait for a load of boats to pass before rowing it down to the church to turn and come back in, plenty of water sloshing about in the bottom of the boat adding extra ballast.
Carrying the boat over stoney ground only wearing wet socks on my feet, to put it away, was not the most comfortable experience.
After speaking with one of the coaches, he said that he had called out to this same boat lower down the river when it was in the wrong place and all the juniors had to row around it.
The general consensus all round is that the narrow boat was in the wrong place on the river and when we tried to move out of its way, it turned into us.
Nobody was hurt apart from the steersman’s pride and two of us lost a shoe each.
At least the water was warmer than when I went in the Gloucester-Sharpness canal in February.
Not many can claim that they have been capsized in a four – in our defence, we were ‘rammed’!
A report will be going into British Rowing regarding the incident, I am unsure if anyone managed to get the name of the boat that hit us.
As I had not brought a spare set of rowing clothing with me, just a full set of dry normal clothing, I decided against the session with leisure this afternoon and came home instead.
During the month of June I managed a total of 130 hours of exercise, walked 234km, climbed 308 flights of stairs, rowed 215km on the Erg and 142km on the water.
By the end of the month my weight was 14 Stone 6lb (202lb/91kg), no gain or loss.