2k @ 24spm, trying to keep up

Or rather trying to catch up a little. A few other people under my instruction have been doing this 2k rate progression with good results, so it was time for me to get on with the next step in the progression.

Previous results were:
12th September – 2k = 6:45.5 / 1:41.2 / 22
6th September – 2k = 6:52.8 / 1:43.2 / 20

So today’s aim for the 2k @ 24spm was another 2second reduction in pace to 1:39.2, though I really wanted to go under 6:36, and that was the aim I went in with.

10min warm up = 1:51.7 / 24 / 2700m

2k = 6:34.4 / 1:38.6 / 24
500m splits:
1:38.2 / 24
1:38.4 / 24
1:38.7 / 25
1:39.1 / 24

Happy with that being a little ahead of target. The next step at 26spm should be comfortably under 6:30 now, and I think I need it to be at least 6:27 to have a chance of breaking 6:20 once I get to the 28spm version.

The great thing about doing this progression of 2ks is that you can bound your capabilities well from the previous row. I looked back in my training diary an hour before going to the gym to find the 2k r22, and because I’d done a 1:41.2 for that I knew I would be faster than that. Sub 1:40 pace had to be a given, and so with a target of 2sec pace improvement for each 2spm rate increase, the 1:39 target couldn’t be far off. Continuing this progression up means that at each step you can work off that previous step in the same way. At worst you know you’ll be faster, even if only by a second in pace, and knowing that in your mind can help you through the middle.

For this 24spm effort I knew it was 2.5seconds per stroke, so I aimed to take each second catch on a 5 or 0, so a catch on 0, 2.5sec, 5, 7.5, 10 and so on. This passed the first half pretty quickly, I then obviously got slightly out of time in the 3rd quarter, but back on track in the 4th. All in all a solid effort that I’m happy with, and happy that I am fully recovered from the cold now and back to 100%.

Session targets

It is getting to that critical time in training, with about 6 weeks to go before a major competition, where any little edge in training mentality can make a big difference. With this is mind what I am doing to try to do is prior to each of my core sessions is to blog the aims of the session so that when I log the results later there is no hiding from whether I made the aim or not.

Today the aim is for the next in the sequence of restricted rate 2k tests. It is nearly a month now since I did the 2k rate 22, which I managed a 6:45.1 / 1:41.2. As the two middle splits came out to 23spm on there I think going for the planned 2sec pace increment may be too much, but we will see.

So the session is 2k at 24spm, and the aim is 1:39.0 pace / 6:36. I will warm up for around 10mins / 3k first, then go for this 2k aiming to keep the pace right on 1:39 / 24 throughout.