Sub 7 Indoor Rowing Club (UK)

[Rod]

8 x 500.3':3'' r (all static starts)

Average pace....................1:42.0
SPM...............................38

Ouch! Time to sharpen up!

This was 0.6 faster than last time I did it but that was a month ago so nothing special.

I didn't feel I'd fully recovered from Fridays HM (disaster!) so hope for much faster very soon.

Raised the Drag Factor to 120 which worked well and all static starts...no rollers!

[Two Pudding Kid]

Rod - sorry, looks like I had a senior moment there and I was too busy nipping off to York 10 mile to notice.

Sunday was a lovely day for a run, and York a nice place to be. Just missed 2 hours (2:00.09) but 2931 out of 3172. Would have liked another 10 secs off that but I can never dash to the finish on a downhill. Still had energy to find my way to Bettys Tea rooms for a post-race scoff and yesterday visited the railway museum. Not down the gym until Thursday, (save my little legs for Birmingham Half coming up).

[Rod]

1 mile (1609 metres)

Average pace.....................1:44.9
Total Time........................5:37.8
SPM................................38

This was for the Indoor Rowers League and given that I'm in the 60-69 Lightweight category it gives me an adjusted score of 4:44.8.....which sounds a lot better!

Good practice for the upcoming 2k's, my endurance felt good but I need to sharpen up a bit and seeing as I only started doing that this week I'm looking at getting a lot quicker yet.

Susan.....................Great running m'dear so nearly a Sub 2! Good luck with the Brum HM, maybe you can break the barrier there!

[MPx]

Still not training. Physio has banned activity for now, just a few stretches 3 times a day. I'll be back at 2:15 pace before I know it!

Sounds like a good run Susan...enjoy the Brum HM

Nice going on the mile Rod. 1:44.9 was going to be exactly my target, but I obviously wont be able to do that now. Of course you'd still be way in front adjusted anyway given my lardiness! Very close on the 8x500 too - hopefully I'll be back to that sort of number in a month or so.

[Rod]

Half Marathon (21097)

Time....................1:22.18.8
Average pace..........1:57.0
SPM......................34
DF........................112

3 minutes and 10 seconds faster than last week.

Puts me top of the British Rankings and 3rd in the world (60-69 Lwt) but 54 seconds short of the British record.

This showed me I really do need to build up properly if I'm going to get that record and I haven't got time to do that at the moment as I need to concentrate on the British Champs 2k on 9th December but I'll come back to it after that.

Happy with this one though...and my bum is still talking to me so a good result!

Mike..............Sorry to hear you're still ''Hors de combat''.....best wishes for a speedy recovery me ol' mate.

[sisaacso1]

Hello, I just joined this team and was wondering if someone could give me some tips. I started rowing just over a year ago, and did just under 2.5 million meters. I love rowing and my times fell quickly over the first 6 months, but have become really stagnant since then. I scoured the internet and pretty much just self taught things and whatever youtube videos I could find for programs or technique. Current best is 6:54 for the 2k and 18:26 for the 5k. I did the Pete Plan for 4 rounds and liked it, but again, gains were becoming minimal at the end of the fourth round. Just wondering if anyone has any ideas on what I can do to improve times. I am 5'11" and 185 lbs (47 years old). I have been hitting it hard again with summer being over, I average about 10-12k a day during the week. Some are steady distance, other are hard short intervals. The last month I have been rowing twice a day 2-3 times a week. I think my distance training is good, I can pull an hour or less under a 2 min split pretty easily, and have pulled a HM under a 2 min split, but that was pretty brutal for me Any guidance would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

[Rod]

Hello, I just joined this team and was wondering if someone could give me some tips.

Hi sisaacso1 and welcome to Sub 7, we'll do our best to help and encourage you wherever we can.

If you have a facebook account then we mainly exist on there, all you need to do is click on ''Join Group'' and it will go from there, here's a link to it;

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2402882415/

Happy rowing!

[Rod]

8 x 500.3':30''r (all static starts)

Average pace.................1:41.5
SPM.............................37
DF...............................125

This was 0.5 on average pace faster than last Monday so moving on..

[Two Pudding Kid]

Mike - I can understand your frustration at not being able to exercise at the moment.

Rod - great effort on the 1 mile. Congratulations on the half-marathon result being within 1 minute of a British record, which would be a lovely Christmas present to yourself, (pencilled my Christmas Sub7 treat for 23 Dec). Always good when you dont do any damage to your butt rowing long distance - no laughing matter Looking good on 8 x 500m.

sisaacso1 - you are doing more metres than most of us. I like being good at long distance ergo, (but methinks that possibly I appear to do well at it as most people run away from 10k or more non-stop). For me I expect to be good at 2k to 42k which is very large range to train for - concentrating a few weeks per year on 2k, (like right now), and then going back to 30 mins and then a solid 10 weeks on marathon madness late Dec to March. Ergo and other races will appear in all this, (have 5 in 5 weeks starting 11 Nov - 8848m, 2k, 2k, 2k, 6k) and sometimes it is just a case of sticking my oar in and hoping fitness and experience pulls me through. I am doing strength work - in my case for Xtraining as well as ergo so energetic stuff like lunges, burpees, kettlebell swinging alongside deadlifts, squats, pressups etc.

Me- Just about recovered from York 10 mile run by Thursday so got stuck into circuits of bench press, planks, a sort of clean and jerk movement from the knees not the ground, and pressups. Sunday was Birmingham half marathon, (rather glad it wasnt yesterday with the wind). Very laboured 2:47.35 which is an embarassing 12:46 per mile. I think partly I have been suffering with a minor lurgy which has been making me tired but no real excuse for falling off 12 minute pace after 7 miles even though 9000 runners doesnt make it easier. Main thing for me is not to be suffering too much, (apart from stiff legs I am fine), and have clocked up 95 half marathons in 19 years. No more long distance running this year and hope to start again in March to do the last 5 to reach the 100 in 20 years and celebrate the milestone in Copenhagen 16 Sept 2018. Staying away from exercise until Thursday, and then will get back to 4-5 sessions a week again.

[MPx]

Rod/Susan Thanks for the good wishes. They worked! I've very tentatively started back and did a proper (short) session tonight. So after a three week break:

13/10 30 mins steady 7337m
14/10 Light Dumbbells and 5K free rate 19:59.2 (missed by .1)
15/10 AWL Pyramid SLOW! I don't know how slow because row pro crashed after the 9th interval and although all 17 are captured on the PM3 I cant be bothered to do the arithmetic! I only did this because with wu/cd its over 10k and the longest distance I ever row. This was the last day of the C2 Challenge and obviously I've not contributed much having not rowed!
16/10 Light Dumbbells and 5K @ 20 for 19:59.1 (spot on!)
17/10 1 Mile Indoor League. 5:41.9 @ 1:46.2. Would have loved a sub 1:45 but just not up to it at the mo. Most recent 2k at end Aug was at 1:47 so looks like I might still be in about the same ball park ... hopefully not to long before I'm back to where I left off in Sept.

Great improvements as always with your sessions Rod and an awesome HM. I cant do 1:57 for 10k let alone 21!

A hard end to the running season for you Susan, amazing to be so close to the 100hm in 20yrs. But more time for the erg now so we'll see those SBs coming thick and fast.

Sisaacso1 - welcome. You're right at where I'm aspiring to be ! Plateaus are a bit frustrating but result from any repeated plan. You just need to change something and your results will change. If you just want to stay fit then you're doing fine, but if you want to get better PBs then I'd suggest that you target either the sprints OR the distance records ... but not both. For the sprints then at least one session per week should be short intervals 10x1min r1min; 6x500 r2; 16x250 r90s; 8x500 r3:30; etc. These should all be well inside your 2k pace and after a while you could go for all the records up to 2k. Then give the sprints a rest and increase distances. Steady state is most efficient, but I favour variable pace to keep the interest and fight the mental demons. In fact it looks like you're currently a bit distance focused so perhaps you should concentrate on the 5/6/10k and 30 mins for a while. I'm sure Rod will work up a plan to suit you if you want...but you could just swap to the Wolverine plan or something else just to ring the changes and reap the benefits that a change will make. Good luck and check in here sometimes so that we see how you're doing.

[Rod]

4 x 1k.5'r

Average pace..............1:45.3
SPM.........................37
DF...........................120

The session from Hell.....it has to be done...unfortunately.

This was 0.4 on average pace faster than last time 10 days ago so ok...I suppose... but I really do need to be faster than this.

The last rep was very tough to start but glad I had a decent sprint left in me for a strong finish.

[le grand fromage]

Hi folks thought I'd 'pop in'. I must try and get on these boards more often Just really out of the habit. Entered BRIC yesterday so hopefully catch up there. I am in full training but noticeably seem to be losing power compared to previous years.

Not much to report for this week as I'm still recovering from a Team 100k row I'd got involved with at the w/e. Managed to break the Mens Hwt 50-59 small team WR by around 14 minutes. First time doing one of these, I enjoyed it after a fashion as it was with a good bunch of lads but it is a long way lol and my body was pretty wrecked at the finish.

Note to self - try and get back on these boards more often

[bisqeet]

Hello, I just joined this team and was wondering if someone could give me some tips. I started rowing just over a year ago, and did just under 2.5 million meters. I love rowing and my times fell quickly over the first 6 months, but have become really stagnant since then. I scoured the internet and pretty much just self taught things and whatever youtube videos I could find for programs or technique. Current best is 6:54 for the 2k and 18:26 for the 5k. I did the Pete Plan for 4 rounds and liked it, but again, gains were becoming minimal at the end of the fourth round. Just wondering if anyone has any ideas on what I can do to improve times. I am 5'11" and 185 lbs (47 years old). I have been hitting it hard again with summer being over, I average about 10-12k a day during the week. Some are steady distance, other are hard short intervals. The last month I have been rowing twice a day 2-3 times a week. I think my distance training is good, I can pull an hour or less under a 2 min split pretty easily, and have pulled a HM under a 2 min split, but that was pretty brutal for me Any guidance would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

if you like doing longer disances then maybe a more polarised trainng method would suit you.
80% slow and steady - 20 hiit

slow and steady doesn't mean weak stroke just slowing the split by reducing the rate and having a longer recovery
i.e. if you did your HM at R24 2:00/500 then for slow and steady would be the same distance R18 at about 2:15
Duration > 60mins

HIIT is typically top end stuff - i.e.. 30s sprints/intervall - short and sweet.

the inbetween stuff is just ballast...

feels weird at first - but going slow to race fast is a winning combination, if you have the time and nerve.

[Rod]

60 minutes Time Trial

Total Metres...........................15,795
Average pace..........................1:53.9
SPM......................................34

This was an ''all time'' (not just age/weight category) PB but a very annoying 16 pesky little metres (less than 0.1 on average pace) short of the British (60-69 Lwt) record!

Argghhh....I'll have to do the bloody thing again now....

[DavidA]

60 minutes Time Trial

Total Metres...........................15,795
Average pace..........................1:53.9
SPM......................................34

This was an ''all time'' (not just age/weight category) PB but a very annoying 16 pesky little metres (less than 0.1 on average pace) short of the British (60-69 Lwt) record!

Argghhh....I'll have to do the bloody thing again now....

That's crazy - setting an all time PB at your age!!! (Only a new rower should be able to do it at that age.)
Congratulations!
You know you don't _have_ to do it again (yeah riiiiight ).

David