The February challenge on the Concept 2 website was the Tour de SkiErg, four time trials, one per week: 5,000m, 500m, 2,000m and 10,000m.
These must be entered as a single distance and completed in the required week to qualify.
Week 1: 5,000m time trial. (current PB 21:23.1 or 2:08.3/500m average)
5:31.1 (1,012m) warm up, then onto the time trial.
13 seconds off my PB, I’ll take that, as I haven’t been training for the SkiErg much recently.
I possibly started out a bit too hot, trying to beat my old average pace of 2:08 but started to fade with each 1,000m, the fitness is there, but SkiErg is so different to the RowErg, very upper body centric and my arms were on fire by the end.
Got my breath back and then did a 7:30.6 (1,120m) cool down.
This time placed me 346/945 overall
Week 2: 500m time trial. (current PB 1:51.2)
5:53.0 (1,016m) warm up, then onto the time trial.
New PB by 2 seconds!
I did not wear my glasses for this one as they slide down my nose and annoy me, so seeing the screen and maintaining pace/rate was a challenge.
Started to die around 350m, the last 100m was all about hanging on, remembering to breathe and keeping the split as low as possible.
This was very much a ‘fly and die’ and boy was I dying towards the end, it was a full on mental battle to complete the last 20 strokes.
Collapsed into my office chair and tried to remember how to breathe again.
Very happy with the result, I threw everything at it and happy to get sub 1:50.
30:05.9 (6,081m) ‘cool down’ – I really wanted to work out the lactic from my arms and then have a more UT2 session to generate some meters.
This time placed me 273/755 overall.
Week 3: 2,000m time trial. (current PB 8:11.0 or 2:02.8/500m average)
6:05.5 (1,015m) warm up, then onto the time trial
First Sub 8 minute 2K, new PB by 12 seconds!
I did not wear my glasses for this one either, so once again keeping track of progress was challenging.
I went out with a plan of holding sub 2:00/500m for the duration of the piece.
I started a little hot, but it felt comfortable and so long as I did not start to drop below 2:00 too quickly, it should be fine.
I kept an eye on the projected finish time as I was determined that this one was finally going to be sub 8 minutes and threw everything at it in the last 100m to ensure that it happened.
Collapsed into my office chair breathing hard
I even took a photo of the finished screen, just in case the C2 logbook rounded the finished time up to 8 minutes as the display was not showing the ‘tenths’ of a second.
Once I had recovered I did a 13:08.6 (2,235m) cool down.
This time placed me 220/789 overall.
Week 4: 10,000m time trial. (current PB 45:07.1 or 2:15.4/500m average)
No warm up, straight in to the time trial as this is a long distance piece and I can ‘warm up’ as I go.
New PB by 44 seconds!
The plan for this one was sub 45 minutes, so hold 2:15/500m or better for the duration of the piece.
I kept my glasses on for this one, although I did have to push them back up more than a few times, which ultimately cost me a few seconds overall, but at least I could track my progress more easily.
I started off with the intention of holding 2:12, for the entire piece, but ultimately had to settle for holding that pace for as long as I could manage, then not letting the pace drop below 2:15/500m if at all possible.
Doorbell rang with 1,500m to go and I had to send my wife to answer it as there was no way I was stopping this close to the finish.
The average was dropping badly by this point, but I threw everything at it for the last 800m, determined to bring the numbers down as low as I could manage.
Very happy with the result. Early on I was hoping for sub 44 minutes, but at 22 minutes for half way I knew this was unlikely.
Collapsed once again into my office chair to recover.
I should probably have had a ‘cool down’ piece, but I was running out of time before work and I really didn’t feel like it.
This time placed me 162/432 overall.
That completes the Tour de SkiErg, and across the 4 combined events I placed 116/355
