New Personal Best! Brag About That New Pb!

[NELSON]

Hey Bob,

You & my good friend DEAN SMITH have set the bar to high for us young want-to-be guns. You older rowers are showing up the way, THANKS!
I stand in AWE.......
I like you, no longer look for PBs but SBs, I refer to seasonal bests. I have remained very steady over the past 25+ yrs, through all the ten ranked events, 500M-FM. I was never at your level but a very STEADY EDDIE.
God, I love this machine.

[Bob S.]

Hey Bob,

You & my good friend DEAN SMITH have set the bar to high for us young want-to-be guns. You older rowers are showing up the way, THANKS!
I stand in AWE.......
I like you, no longer look for PBs but SBs, I refer to seasonal bests. I have remained very steady over the past 25+ yrs, through all the ten ranked events, 500M-FM. I was never at your level but a very STEADY EDDIE.
God, I love this machine.

Thanks, Nelson. I figure that I will probably be seeing Dean at Boston, although we won't be competing this time around. Actually, we never have competed directly at a racing venue. For the one race in which we were both in the same age group, his LWt time was well under my HWt time. Fortunately for me, he does not seem to be too interested on the long stuff and that is where I do my best.

By the way, have you ever gotten a good handle on altitude difference? I am at a couple of thousand feet lower elevation than you, but it is always a crapshoot as to how much I can improve by going to sea level.

Bob S.

[NELSON]

Bob,

That question is a tough call on the distance rows. I only know for sure in the MILE HIGH SPRINTS we get a 2.25sec/500M adjustment, about 9.0 sec over the 2000M to qualify for the Boston-B. I am not sure how that would calculate out over the 5000m & over events. I only row here in Denver so I do not have any personal experience in rowing at a high level of intensity at sea level. A very good person to ask is DENNIS HASTING, I am sure you know him from the rowing competitions. Dennis lives even higher up in the mountains than I do and being world class he probably has a much better feel on this issue. He is not rowing these days, has not for a couple of years, but you can find his email in the concept2 historical ranking data,LTWT,50-59.

[bloomp]

Broke 23:00 for a 6k, not sure of the exact time as it was part of a 24' piece, but I knocked almost 2 seconds off my last 6k PR split and held it for longer than 6k.

[gregory.cook]

Broke 23:00 for a 6k

Well done, Paul. PBs are glorious.

[El Caballo]

Tuesday evening I didn't row a PB, but did manage a full marathon SB of 2:52:49.6 (2:02.9/500m). Not bad at all considering I've averaged only about 72K a month since starting to use my ergometer again last September and haven't rowed anything over a half marathon in over 6 years.

[DavidA]

Bill,
Congatulations! That is a great time.
I haven't seen your name here in quite a while. Welcome back if you've been gone - hello again, if you just been quiet.

Sincerely,
David

[energi]

that's awesome - maybe I should lower my mileage

[El Caballo]

Thanks David and Michelle for your comments.

You're right, I haven't been here for a L_O_N_G while. Back in 2003 I was on pace for 3 million meters (May 1, 2003 to April 30, 2004), but after I got married in October that year, my rowing took a big hit--especially when my rowing machine was relegated to our unheated, detached garage.

Last winter I participated in the UK Challenge Series (missed the first month, but did the rest). I'm doing it again this year, plus I was invited to participate in the Fall Rowing Challenge. I've been a bit more disciplined this year and have managed at least one row a week (except early last month when I tweaked my back) since mid-September. I have been spending more time on the forums, and once again looked at the 100k 50s lightweight individual world record (previously thought about the 40s LWT record, but I've aged since then) and think I can do better--IF I can get more training in. I did the marathon partly as a test of how I can approach a 100k effort.

One of the problems I've had whenever I've tried a marathon in the past is cramping in my legs in the last 30-40 minutes. Rather than the sports drink I tried in the past, this time I tried a combination of electrolyte replacement and fueling product that is designed for ultra distance events. It's hard to say whether or not they helped. I think my lack of training was the biggest hindrance to my performance. I still had problems with the muscles in my legs tightening up during the last 10k. Also, I'm very out of practice drinking with my CamelBak--I don't think I had it positioned properly this time. I definitely need to practice refueling--my 2-1/2 hour supply was only 2/3 consumed and I slowed dramatically when trying to row one handed while drinking from the fuel bottle. Not drinking it all probably wasn't a big deal for the marathon, but would severely impact a longer, 100k, effort.

Michelle, good luck with your training and 100k attempt in June. I would definitely not recommend lowering your mileage.

[aharmer]

New PB at 2k this morning...6:42.6, 33 spm (6:51.6 previous)

1:40.6, 32
1:40.8, 32
1:40.9, 33
1:40.3, 35

Warmed up with 5k all at about 23 spm and 2:10 except 3800-4100 & 4400-4700 where I went race pace.

I've done almost every kind of exercise imagineable and that's the most horrible (wonderful) 6-7 minutes in the fitness world.

[NavigationHazard]

Congratulations! I agree: it's a wonderful, euphoric feeling to be (say) 200m out from the finish of a PB row and to realize already that you've got it in the bag. That almost makes up for the whipping by Mistress Lactate ...

[detlefchef]

Shaved 1.6 off my previous best 2K with 6:56.4. Me thinks the road to 6:50 is going to be a bit longer than I previously thought.

[Uyam Zenra]

This morning, I went to the gym to do some standard workout. in prospect of an eventual marathon row in april I've started with doing 10km rows in the morning, also to get use d to row at early hours, since that's what coming soon as well with OTW season kicking off and me planning to attend an introductory course...

However, after 1k of warming up I started rowing just below 2:00, which I usually do, when heading for longer pieces. However, I started with a rather high rate (22/23 spm), since I usually start lower (like 20 spm).

Well, I had made a choice of faster music, so the pace kept going slightly up during the workout and suddenly, about halfway through, I realized, that the projected finish was pretty close to my personal best, which I knew was around 38:20.

So I continued to row, trying slowly and constanty to lower the average split towards 1:55. At first I thought it wouldn't be too tough, since when doing some strong strokes the projected finish dropped below my current PB by several seconds, however, I was wrong of course. As most of the times the erg proved to be a tough opponent after all

But at the end I managed to do the last 2k and specially the last 500m reasonably fast to beat my PB, although at the end only by a mere three seconds. The nice thing about it: those three seconds just made the avg. split time drop from 1:55.0 to 1:54.9

Long story short: my old 10k PB was 38:21.8 and is now 38:18.4

Wonder if I'll ever get below 38:00

But first, I'll complete my first million.... tomorrow that is!

[Uyam Zenra]

Shaved 1.6 off my previous best 2K with 6:56.4. Me thinks the road to 6:50 is going to be a bit longer than I previously thought.

yeah, getting that time below 6:50 is tough... took me a few months of quite extensive training... good luck, though! you'll do it!

[macroth]

6:33.3 yesterday. I was aiming for sub 6:40, so I went out at a safe 1:40-ish for 1300m, then a nice sprint to finish with some 1:28s and 1:29s coming up on screen.

Still (only?) 7 seconds off my lifetime best, back when I rowed year-round.