As usual….
Posted by thepeteplan on December 23, 2008
As usual I don’t follow what I would advise other people both in terms of session choice, and the execution of the session once you’ve chosen it. Today was only a short day at work, and so my gym session was fairly early in the morning (as I still split my work day in half with the gym session, even though the work day was just 4 hours long). I decided to do a short session, and the next in my progression to 2k. Last week was 1250m, and this week I chose to move on to 1300m (as I wasn’t feel great, so didn’t want a full 100m jump in distance). Even in the warm up my legs didn’t have their usual zip, which should have been the sign that this was the wrong choice of session today.
4k w/u = 1:54.3 / 23
Despite this I set 1300m with the plan of each 200m split being at 1:32.5 pace or under, the execution however went like this:
1300m – target 200m splits all at or below 1:32.5:
1:30.7 / 38
1:32.2 / 36
1:33.0 / 35
2:31.7 / 22
1:52.7 / 27
1:46.0 / 28
1:44.5 / 26
Clearly not to plan at all, and to be honest there was no physical reason why I stopped rowing after 580m. Just to prove that to myself I set 1300m again on the clock when I finished, and this time set off with a plan of simply finishing in a reasonable pace whatever. Attempt 2 went like this:
1:31.7 / 38
1:32.5 / 36
1:32.7 / 34
1:33.2 / 35
1:34.2 / 33
1:33.7 / 34
1:30.5 / 37
1300m = 4:01.2 / 1:32.7 / 35
As a single piece on its own the second one is ok. It is 1300m at under 2k pb pace, which is the overall target in this progression. It wasn’t well paced with the stroke rate and pace varying a bit too much, a sign of not being on the ball today (though stroke rate averages for 200m splits should be taken with a pinch of salt, as the timing of the first or last stroke makes a couple of strokes difference), but the overall result is ok. It didn’t feel flat out, even after doing 600m at pace just a few minutes before.
Next time I do this session I will have to decide between doing 1300m again for a better pace, or progressing on to 1350 or 1400m. I’ll let how I feel on the day dictate that.
shirleygkn said
I think you can tell even before you start a session if it’s going to go as planned or not can’t you?
Do you think the warmup was not a quick enough pace?
Was the start of 1.30.7 just too quick? (comparing it with the 2nd attempt).
Odd you did so well with the 2nd attempt – but then again, it was a good recovery row. You must have thought you could do it by that stage or you wouldn’t have attempted it I guess.
Jamie Pfeffer said
Good questions, Shirley. To me, those seem spot on.