When 8 seconds seems an eternity

For anyone who doesn’t compete in a sport like erging (running, etc), the idea that just a few seconds, or even tenths of a second difference in your time can be the difference between winning or losing, achievement or failure, being happy with your time or not, are not really comprehendable. Today’s 10k test was always going to be a tough row. As I said yesterday, my previous pb was set over 4 years ago during my fastest season on the erg. But the training has gone well, and I was confident that I was physically ready to beat the pb.

The time, however, ended up just inside 8seconds slower than my pb. 8 seconds! Such a small amount of time, but enough to make what is probably my 3rd fastest 10k of all time, and my fastest for some 4 years, not quite seem like it’s good enough.

10k = 34:30.1 / 1:43.5 / 28

1k splits:
1:42.7 / 30
1:42.9 / 29
1:42.9 / 29
1:43.1 / 29
1:43.2 / 28
1:44.0 / 29
1:45.1 / 28
1:45.2 / 28
1:44.9 / 28
1:40.6 / 31

The 1k splits really tell the story of how tough it was starting to feel at the 5k point. I cruised for a bit too long though as I do wonder had I got back to pace just 2k or so from the line, could I have done enough still to sneak the pb?

Whatever the answer, it is still a very good 10k time, and marks the end of another successful stage of PP08. It may not be the end of the 10k / 30min hard rows though. We have two weeks until we’re beginning the 5k phase, so I still have time if I feel good one day to go for either the 30min or 10k again and try to set a pb. I would only do that if I’m feeling really good one day though. For now, this week with be a bit of preparation work for the Evesham golden mile race next weekend. When you’ve got your body well trained to row hard over a duration of 30 to 40mins, a 5min race will be tough to prepare yourself for in the space of 6 days.