Don't close the curtains!

I left my session to the evening today as I went over to Guildford college to train with a guy I’ve been coaching. Nice small gym, only model C’s, but in pretty good condition.

4 x 1500m / 4min rest:
4:59.6 / 1:39.9 / 30
4:59.6 / 1:39.9 / 30
4:59.4 / 1:39.8 / 30
4:59.1 / 1:39.7 / 31

Now this may look like a good controlled set, but the final rep was a little different to the look of it. I went off faster and was sitting just under 1:39 average when at 600m to go a gym instructor decided to close off the curtains around one corner of the gym (right next to the ergs) and left one curtain to the side of me, that stuck itself straight to the side of the fan. The drag dropped from 130 to about 20 with no air being able to get into the side, and my split dropped from 1:38 to 1:57 with nothing to pull against. I shouted to her to move it, but by then my average split dropped from 1:38.8 to 1:40.0 – I was about to push hard for the end too, very annoying! I don’t think she even understood what my problem was until she tried to peel the curtain off the side of the erg, to find it was vacuum packed to it!

Not much more to say about that, solid enough session, but I don’t like model C handles. Tomorrow is a steady distance row, then an “interesting” session on Friday… Friday’s session is one I’ve done before a few times, and if you want to push it to the limit it can be a truely horrible session.

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