Monday, rest day, I decided to take a day off after the weekend’s activities to give myself a chance to recover.
Tuesday morning rowing, I had another bad night and was awake from around 04:00, so was not really feeling it for crushing another workout.
I did a 2,000m (10:09.7) warm up, then did 2 x 5,000m, 4:00r as a preparation piece for Gloucester.
Both were close enough to 20 minutes to be a good workout, but my body was not interested in anything quicker today.
Then the Tesco delivery arrived and by the time I had helped with this, I had a work meeting, so waited until after that was over, to go and shower.
Wednesday morning rowing, another less than ideal night’s sleep so I decided to do a UT2 piece this morning, 2,000m (10:01.0) war up, then 10,000m at a steady state.
A slight push towards the end to finish up under 45 minutes, the 2,248m (11:44.0) cool down.
Thursday morning rowing in the work gym, 2,000m (9:03.2) warm up, I didn’t feel like doing another 10,000m piece or 2 x 5,000m, so I opted for the C2 WoD which was 20 x 10 calories, 0:30r.
The first one, as expected, was the quickest at 0:20.8, (403 Watts) the slowest was 0:25.2 (318 Watts), most were in the 22-23 second range.
I was able to do less and less recovery rowing between the intervals as the fatigue kicked in and I was fighting for breath towards the end.
This effort placed me 1/9 in Dark Horse Rowing, 7/51 in the 50-59 age bracket in the UK, 25/140 overall in the UK, 17/332 in 50-59 age bracket worldwide and 135/1409 overall worldwide.
I finished off the session with a 2,241m (10:24.2) cool down and some stretching.
Friday morning skiing – last week of the C2 Tour de SkiErg, this week’s challenge is a 10,000m Time Trial.
1,000m (5:50.4) warm up then check what my current PB and pace are – 46:18.1 (2:18.9).
Set the pace skiier for 2:18.9 and off we go.
I was aiming to stay at or just below the target pace and then have a push at the end.
2,000m in 9:01.3, 50 seconds off my 2K time, still have 4 more to go, 51m up on the pace skiier
4,000m in 18:04.2, over a minute off my 4K time, 1.6 seconds down on the first 2K, 97m up on the pace skiier.
6,000m in 27:10.8, new 6K PB by 13.4 seconds, 3.7 seconds down on the second 2K, 130m up on the pace skiier.
8,000m in 36:16.2, new 8K PB by 16.8 seconds, 1.2 seconds up on the third 2K, 164m up on th epace skiier.
10,000m in 45:07.1, new PB by 71.1 seconds, fastest 2K by 10.4 seconds, 255m up on the pace skiier.
The worst pace I hit at any point was 2:20 but only for a stroke or two, I hit 2:18 occasionally, but aimed to keep 2:16-2:15 or better across the entire piece, I think I hit 2:05 during the last 200m trying to chase off those last few seconds to bring the finish time down.
I didn’t quite manage to go under 45 minutes, even though it was on the cards for most of the workout, I had let the pace drop just that bit too much on the middle section to pull it back in the last 1,000m, I knew I did not have the energy to sustain a push from 2,000m out.
Collapsed into my chair breathing heavily for about 2-3 minutes and then calm down for another 3-4 minutes before doing another 1,131m (7:21.7) as a cool down.
Happy with the result and this gives me an overall average pace of 2:06.4
Saturday morning rowing, 2,000m (8:33.4) warm up for masters OTW session.
We were supposed to be going out as our regular 4 in preparation for Gloucester, even though we were a member short, but the other crew did not have anyone who could steer on stroke side, so the boats were swapped and we ended up with nobody sat in their normal seat and two people sat on their less preferred side of the boat.
This resulted in some sub optimal training where most of the time was spent on technique and finished with a piece that ended up at 30spm with very little power going into the oar and most of the energy being wasted flying up and down the slide (13,761m).
Walked into Staines after a cup of tea and bought some spicy chicken and rice from the market for lunch.
I then decided to give the C2 WoD a try, this was for a 2,000m time trial, I was hoping for a sub 7 minute attempt. 1,000m (4:26.3) warm up and then onto the time trial.
I set a pace boat for 1:45.0 as this is what I would need to beat if I wanted
This started off well if a bit, fast with the first 500m in 1:43.3 and 8m up on the pace boat, I then blew up at around 800m and had to pause for breath.
By the time I restarted, my goal time was out of the question, I carried on at somewhere close to 1:46, but slowly dropped to 1:52 to finish with a respectable time of 7:26.6, but a failure with regards to a decent time trial attempt.
1,135m (4:52.6) cool down before heading out for leisure rowing.
I was stroke/cox in one of the leisure quads today, obviously my name had come around in the coxing rotation, fortunately I did not have to cox the entire outing, just one half.
My involvement was for the warm up and technical drills on the way up to the motorway bridge where I swapped with Josh for the cox’s seat.
We played leapfrog on the way back down, however after the third leap, Josh was complaining of back pain and we had to swap back, I then decided we needed to catch the other quads even though they were a fair way ahead by now, so put on a decent last burn for the session to catch them, (3,467m).
Sunday morning rowing, 2,000m (8:52.5) warm up for masters rowing, then because I arrived early I then did another piece of 1,379m (5:56.6) of warm up before we headed out for our masters OTW session.
We had the full Gloucester crew today in the right boat with everyone in the correct seats and I was back at stroke, however Keith had hurt his back and so Alan swapped in to replace him at #3.
Warm up and steady state half pressure and 22spm on the way up to the motorway bridge, then 26spm and full pressure down to the church.
This started well until my oar caught in my AIO and I caught a crab, causing the boat to slow quite violently. I disentangled myself from the oar and we set off again only for it to happen again less than a minute later.
We then decided it best if I roll down my AIO to try and avoid any further incidents and managed a decent clip on the way down with no further mishaps.
We then turned and headed back up once again at 22spm and half pressure before turning and doing a full top to bottom run (about 3,200m) at 26spm and full power.
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We turned once again and headed back to the boat club (11,544m)
After a cup of tea I headed into Staines and had McDonnalds for brunch.
As it was a reasonably nice day, not too cold and only about 11:00, I decided to take my single out for a session. I struggled to get out as the wind kept blowing me back into the landing stage.
I was concentrating on slow rates of 20-22spm and plenty of power although the wind was really not helping in some parts of the river.
I managed to go up to the top, all the way to the bottom and back before heading in for the leisure session (6,605m).
For the leisure session I was out in my single again with a suggestion that I turn earlier to avoid the worst of the wind at the top end of our section of river.
I went out first and had made it up to the suggested turning point and was coming back down at around 26-28spm past the boat club before they even had the second quad launched.
I continued down to the bottom, turned and headed back up concentrating on power at low rates again and was back to the church before I saw them again.
I turned here and then chased them down on the way back to the bottom before finally heading back up and in on a slow and windy return made even worse by the wake from a boat that also went past (7,101m).