30r20

Moderate effort, and starting to feel a bit fitter:

30mins = 8003m / 1:52.4 / 20
5min splits:
1:53.8 / 20
1:53.0 / 20
1:52.8 / 20
1:52.6 / 20
1:52.0 / 20
1:50.2 / 20

Just in time to go away for 10 days with work to the US where I’ll be unlikely to see an erg, never mind do any training on one!

30mins hard effort

30mins = 8306m / 1:48.3 / 26
5min splits:
1:49.0 / 26
1:49.0 / 26
1:49.0 / 26
1:48.7 / 27
1:48.3 / 27
1:45.9 / 28

In context, this is not as quick as my half marathon pb pace, and is some 5+ seconds slower pace than my 30min pb. However, in the context of my current fitness level and training volume and intensity I am happy with the row this evening. For the rate and effort level it gives me a good idea of my current capabilities, and the consistency in pace is good. I nearly didn’t train today after a long day at work, but I generally try to preach that you can always find 30mins in a day to exercise rather than watch tv, play on the internet or sit on your bum on the sofa. If it counts for other people it counts for me.

Training around travel

I spent the long weekend in northern Italy, walking in the hills, soaking up the sunshine, and enjoying good food and wine. I arrived back on Sunday evening with 6 potential training days before my next (work) trip out of the country, so no time to waste.

Monday:

10k = 36:52.4 / 1:50.6 / 25
2k splits:
1:52.8 / 24
1:51.2 / 25
1:50.7 / 25
1:50.2 / 26
1:48.1 / 27

Tuesday:

2 x 2k / 5min rest:
6:59.6 / 1:44.9 / 28
6:49.6 / 1:42.4 / 29

As the 10k was fairly fast yesterday, and time was limited today, I didn’t push the session too hard. Just two solid 2k reps to remind me what the distance feels like.

Cross team challenge

My training has been lacking a reason to push hard on the sessions. To give me a reason to push hard on today’s session I decided to do this month’s cross team challenge, and pick a person to beat. The challenge this month is decending distance reps of 1500m, 800m, 400m, 200m, 100m with a 2min passive rest between, and so starting each rep from a static start. This is not my preference for interval training, I prefer to do active rest and take a rolling start into each rep, but for all but the very short sprints I do not find that it impacts the score. So as rules are rules I went with it.

My team mate jd looked like a good person to aim for, and with a 1:37.1 average pace for the set would be a hard target. The plan was roughly 1:40 for the 1500 / 800, 1:30 for the 400, 1:25 for the 200 and 1:20 for the 100, which I thought in total would get me about there to beat jd’s score. It went like this:

1500m = 4:59.2 / 1:39.7 / 31
2min passive rest
800m = 2:38.4 / 1:39.0 / 32
2min passive rest
400m = 1:12.8 / 1:31.0 / 37
2min passive rest
200m = 34.2 / 1:25.5 / 42
2min passive rest
100m = 16.1 / 1:20.5 / 45

3000m = 9:40.7 / 1:36.7 / 37

I knew that a few tenths up on plan in the early reps would buy me a fair bit of leeway in the later reps. It felt good to put some pace down in the final reps too, I’ve not done that for a while! I felt like I was working comfortably hard during the first 2 reps, which means that this was probably about right for my current mental and physical fitness level. There was probably more to be taken physically in the early reps, but it would have had an impact on the later reps.

These decreasing reps are a difficult one to pace for the best overall average pace. The 1500m is half of the overall session distance, and so has the biggest impact on the average pace. But it is also about double the duration of the next longest rep, so pace it too hard and you won’t recover from it. Whether there was too much left in the final reps is very difficult to judge, a short duration high rate sprint is always there if you have reasonable erg sprinting genes.

750m reps

Tonights after work training session in the garage was a repeat of last week’s 750m reps. The aim this week was to start at the same starting pace of just under 1:40, but rather than do a constant paced first 4 aim to negative split slightly with a fast last still.

5 x 750m / 3:30 rest:
2:29.6 / 1:39.7 / 30
2:29.0 / 1:39.3 / 31
2:28.3 / 1:38.8 / 31
2:28.0 / 1:38.6 / 31
2:23.9 / 1:35.9 / 33

3750m = 12:18.7 / 1:38.4 / 31

An improvement of 0.4 on the average split from last week. Still some way to go before being at a decent pace, but I would put the intensity at the moment as somewhere between 2k and 5k.

10k varied pace

10k = 38:05.9 / 1:54.2 / 24
2k splits:
1:57.9 / 24
1:54.1 / 24
1:58.7 / 22
1:51.7 / 26
1:48.9 / 27

No real plan going into the row today other than to get 10k done. I rarely do any warm up on these easier distance rows, so the first 2k was warming up hence the relatively high stroke rate for the pace. The last 4k was done in intervals.

60mins (fartlek PP style)

A Pete Plan style fartlek row this afternoon over 60mins. I believe the literal translation of fartlek is “speed play”, or bursts of more intense effort within a more stready training piece. Rather than make these completely random I like to keep a set format whereby I row a steady pace, then do an increasing number of hard strokes at each 2.5 minute point. So after 2min30 I do 10 hard strokes, after 5mins 11 hard strokes, and so on increasing by 1 stroke each time. In the last third this means I’m doing over a minute hard in each 2min30 section. Mentally this is a great way to split up a longer row (or run, or bike, or whatever your chosen form of cardio is). How easy to do the steady section and how hard to do the hard bursts is really down to how you feel on the day.

60mins = 15876m / 1:53.3 / 25
10min splits:
1:55.4 / 24
1:53.8 / 24
1:53.3 / 25
1:53.1 / 25
1:52.9 / 26
1:51.5 / 26

Hot work in the garden this afternoon, and the longest row I’ve done in some time. I need to do more of these.

5 x 750m – back to interval training

It has been a while since I have done any pace work in my training, so a 5 x 75om reps session seems like a good way to start off.

5 x 750m / 3:30 rest:
2:29.7 / 1:39.8 / 30
2:29.5 / 1:39.6 / 31
2:29.4 / 1:39.6 / 31
2:29.4 / 1:39.6 / 31
2:23.7 / 1:35.8 / 34

3750m = 12:21.6 / 1:38.8 / 31

There is little doubt that I could and perhaps should have gone quicker in the first 4 reps, but that will come. The rest felt generous thoughout, which means that the pace only felt tough mentally, not physically. When I consciously kept the rate up in the final rep there was some pace there, so that is a good sign. How much pace can I get back in the next 4 weeks before my next overseas work trip? Watch this space.

Free rate 30mins

I had time for another 30min row after work today, so opted for a little higher stroke rate to allow a faster pace. As I haven’t put in the hard sessions recently these are much tougher mentally than they are physically. I know I am not close to max, so it is just a matter of slowly putting the pace back in session by session.

30mins = 8151m / 1:50.4 / 25
5min splits:
1:52.1 / 24
1:51.8 / 24
1:50.9 / 25
1:50.7 / 25
1:49.5 / 26
1:47.2 / 27

It is not fast, closer to marathon pb pace than even half marathon pace for me, but it is a step back in the right direction. If I warmed up first I would be able to start off quicker and be under 1:50 average, and once I’m back there I’ll start pushing the distance back up when time allows. The priority really needs to be to put back in some interval training though to get some rapid improvements.

Another 30r20

My priority at the moment is to use the training sessions I do to build fitness while operating at a good stroking power. 30min rate20 rows fit the bill quite well to allow me to work reasonably aerobically hard, with a good stroking power, for a reasonable duration. Of course the word reasonable will be removed in due course when I am back to working hard for a long duration!

30mins = 7958m / 1:53.0 / 20

5min splits = 1:52.4, 1:52.5, 1:53.0, 1:54.9, 1:54.6, 1:50.9

As Saturday was spent at a barbeque eating good food and drinking good wine and beer this was a much needed recovery session.