Better tactics for the 8 x 2mins CTC

In my last blog entry I posted my first attempt at this month’s cross team challenge (www.c2ctc.com), and discussed the tactics that I thought would work better for it. Yesterday evening I put into practice my thoughts on pacing for the challenge. Last time I had aimed for 1:39.8 pace / 601m on each of the first 7 reps, and this allowed me to do 649m / 1:32.4 pace for the final rep. My conjecture was that I could go as extreme as 1:45 pace for the first 7 reps and go enough faster on the final rep to beat the fastest + slower challenge score. Somewhere in the middle therefore has to be the optimum pacing for the first 7 reps, so this time the aim was 1:41.5 / 591m for the first 7 reps.

CTC 8 x 2mins / 2min rest:
591m / 1:41.5 / 31
591m / 1:41.5 / 30
591m / 1:41.5 / 30
592m / 1:41.3 / 30
592m / 1:41.3 / 30
591m / 1:41.5 / 30
592m / 1:41.3 / 30
677m / 1:28.6 / 38

16:00.0 = 4818m / 1:39.6 / 31

Fastest + slowest = 591 + 677 = 1268m

With the fastest + slowest rep distances all that counts in this challenge this was clearly a much better tactical row. 18m further than the previous attempt, but a slower overall set average, meaning less energy was expended for a better results, therefore more efficiency in achieving it. I’m pleased with the final rep too, over 2/3rds of the way to a solidly sub3 for 1k,  so without the 7 reps before it I’m sure I could do that.

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CTC 8 x 2mins and tactics

The CTC this month is an interesting on tactically. With just the fastest and slowest to count for your score it is fairly obviously that you want 7 reps at exactly the same distance and one faster. With that in mind the next consideration is that for every second slower you go on the first 7 reps, you only need to go one second quicker on the final rep. Up to a point most people will be able to go more than a second quicker on the final rep by going a second slower on the first 7. So the key, in my opinion, is finding the balance point where you’re effectly doing a strong warm up for 7 reps then a flat out sprint for the 8th.

For my first attempt, because I was swapping the session out for a very similar session of 600m reps at 1:40 pace I decided for training effect I would do 1:40 pace (or really 601m to make it just under 1:40 pace as it looks better on paper) for the first 7 then sprint the last.

CTC 8 x 2mins / 2min rest:
601m / 1:39.8 / 31
601m / 1:39.8 / 30
601m / 1:39.8 / 30
601m / 1:39.8 / 30
601m / 1:39.8 / 31
602m / 1:39.6 / 31
601m / 1:39.8 / 31
649m / 1:32.4 / 35

16mins = 4857m / 1:38.8 / 31

Slowest + faster = 601+649 = 1250m

I could have done the last rep faster if I’d properly sprinted it, but I can tell that this isn’t the optimum pattern yet. If I went a second slower for the first 7 reps I would definitely be able to go more than a second quicker on the last. Where will the balance point come? Well, I think I could do 1:45 for the first 7 and be pretty much completely fresh for the last, and do a 1:27 paced final rep to beat this. But without any fast sprint work I think that would be about the extreme for a 1250m+ for me at the moment. So probably somewhere around 1:43 / 1:44 might yield the best overall result on current form.

Interestingly this gave me the exact same result as Wizzo, yet his set average was around 2.5seconds quicker. I could not do the 8 reps all at 1:36.4 or faster as he did, and so a flat paced effort is definitely not the best method for me.

Middle distance work

I don’t seem to have done a great deal of training this week. My staple training session when I don’t feel like doing anything too hard is a 10km row with no warm up, just gradually speeding up as I warm up.

Tuesday:

10k = 36:58.9 / 1:50.9 / 24
2k splits:
1:53.4 / 24
1:52.3 / 24
1:51.3 / 25
1:50.3 / 25
1:47.1 / 26

Friday:

10k = 36:27.4 / 1:49.3 / 26
2k splits:
1:51.8 / 26
1:50.5 / 26
1:50.0 / 26
1:48.9 / 26
1:45.5 / 28

Starting stroke rate generally predicts the overall pace, as is evident from the two rows. No real difference in overall effort level, but 2spm higher throughout and the 10k is about 30seconds quicker. This is less than half the volume I should be doing in 4 days though, but sometimes there just isn’t time! As I tell the people I coach though, anyone can make 30mins a day to exercise, no matter how busy they are. Can you honestly say you don’t have a 30min period in a day where you don’t do anything useful? Watching tv, browsing the internet….