Endurance erging - A place to discuss 42, 50, 100k upwards.

[DavidA]

...
The last kilometers, a surge of energy, mental strength kicks in. My arms are stiff, my butt hurts, I feel the fatigue in my back, and I sense a leg cramp might hit at any moment. I try to stay focused on the PM5 and watch the distance go down. But it’s not going down fast enough. I push, I pull, I breathe, breathe, keep a rhythm, keep the rhythm. I try to speed up for the last few strokes, it’s hard, really hard. I finish my 100K.
A scream of joy and pain comes out of my mouth, scaring my wife and kids. I unclip my feet and collapse on the floor, exhausted. I try to catch my breath. I stay lying there for a while, just focusing on my breathing, enjoying the moment. I stand up, walk a bit, look at the PM5 to see my performance : 8:17:21.6s. I’m happy I finished, I’m satisfied with the result.
Post-100K Observations :
• I think I was missing a few rowing sessions and more specific strength training to have more upper body strength and endurance, particularly in my arms.
• The lack of soreness makes me think that my training load before the 100K was adequate.
• The lack of "energy" at the end makes me think that my nutrition did not provide enough calories.
• Hydration, using only water mixed with powder for mineral salts and a few calories, worked well for me.
• The physical and mental preparation with rowing, cycling, and strength training seemed to complement each other and allowed me to vary the pleasures and efforts.
• If you believe in yourself, then it’s possible.
Would I do it again? At the moment, I don’t feel like it, but asking the question might already be projecting myself toward the next 100K. Only time will tell.
Thank you for reading to the end, and I hope my modest experience can provide some answers to all the brave souls embarking on this adventure.

Huge congratulations!!
That is quite an accomplishment!
Also good to have been able to keep pushing yourself to finish, even when that was getting difficult.

David

[piggydwarf]

Iain and Stu, thank you both for the insight. There are some great points there that made a few things click for me in terms of my mindset approaching this. This one especially is a great reminder: "I would not have the patience to stick with a plan of long very slow rows with no variation and no plan works if it isn't carried out."

Rather than just thinking "I need to make sure I go slow enough so that I don't over-work myself" I will remind myself "I need to make sure I have fun enough so that I don't over-bore myself" too! I've spent the past week playing with some varied paces and really enjoying that. I am going to continue fairly unstructured for now, but with the intent to improve the kind of output I can sustain in the faster ranges. I think a rotation of mini-goals will be helpful for keeping things moving in the right direction, especially targeting my bests for the 1 hour and the half marathon.

Training build so far:
Week 1: 36.0 km
Week 2: 43.6 km
Week 3: 50.3 km
Week 4: 55.0 km

I have the luxury of coming in with a steady base of mixed crosstraining time per week already (gym, stairmaster, bike, and also walking with intent at a pace that would probably still be relevant to an ultra at my lower level) so even though my specific proficiency on the erg leaves a lot to be desired, I so far feel quite prepared to keep building up for this goal without issue (fingers crossed). The excitement is still high this early on in the process and keeping that up is the top priority!

[Dangerscouse]

Rather than just thinking "I need to make sure I go slow enough so that I don't over-work myself" I will remind myself "I need to make sure I have fun enough so that I don't over-bore myself" too! I've spent the past week playing with some varied paces and really enjoying that. I am going to continue fairly unstructured for now, but with the intent to improve the kind of output I can sustain in the faster ranges. I think a rotation of mini-goals will be helpful for keeping things moving in the right direction, especially targeting my bests for the 1 hour and the half marathon.

Exactly that. Finding the sweet spot for each training day is essential. Some days you'll feel better and able to cope with more, and nudge up the pace accordingly. Other days you might drop it down, so try and consider intuitively what feels right on any given day, and those mini-goals will be perfect for when you're firing on all cylinders.

I got HM and 60 mins PBs when I was training my ultra distances, so it definitely helps to justify the length of time you'll spend on the erg.

I'm a big advocate of variety of paces and stroke rate, so you need a good mixture to really keep improving, but this can be cross training that you mention. I did a weekly hot dynamic pilates class and a 45 min spin class in addition to the rowing, which I really think helped to challenge me in different ways, whilst keeping up the intensity.

I did seem to recover quickly, so that may or may not work for you, but you've got to keep an eye on that. You'll hopefully already know the difference between laziness and proper fatigue, but that's a skill that will be very valuable.