Half marathon - Feedback on pacing strategy

[bgrenning]

I'm a 53-yr-old man, 180 lbs, 6' and completed my first ever HM today in 1:22:50.5 which ranks me 5th in age group in US this year. I'm sure that ranking won't stand by end-of-season and I may try to improve on that. Even though this was my first HM, I typically enjoy the longer rows and distinguish myself more on longer sets, achieving higher rankings (5k, 6k, 30min, 10k, 60min). I find the shorter/high pace rows to be "dangerous" with potential injury risk (i.e. 500s) although I do some sets of say 4x1k or 5x1k periodically, in which I target 3:33-38/1k.

I have no background in actual rowing and bought my first erg about 3 years ago. I've been a triathlete for 15 years and rank highly in the olympic distance events (1.5k swim/40k bike/10k run) which takes a total of 2 hours 10-20 minutes when red-lining near threshold. During the last 3 years while working rowing into my weekly aerobic conditioning routine, I typically row 15k-30k/week and do a total of 6-7 hours of cardio work all-in. The bottom line is that I'm definitely not a dedicated rower, as many people are on this forum especially those who are highly ranked.

Pacing advice: on all of my long rows, I always map out a strategy beforehand, using knowledge from drag/damper settings & pacing from prior long rows. I've become much more effective on the longer events by avoiding trying to keep a steady pace throughout a long row as I did in my first 2 years. Now I split the long rows into sections with pick-ups every 1k. The length of the pick-ups, which I do at the beginning of each 1k depends on the length of the long row. On the shorter distances like 5k-6k (maybe 30 min event), I can do the power-set portion for 150-200-250 meters/1k, and on longer rows of 10k/60min, this is too hard & tiring so I do only 10 power-pulls.

My 2k pace? I've never tried very hard on a 2k row, which I know is the world standard, but I've done 2ks under 7:10 multiple times during 3x2k or 4x2k sets. Once I did a 7:05 without leaving everything out there, so I assume at my best I can probably do around 7:00 with max effort...which probably sets my 2k pace at around 1:45-46/500. This is potentially a baseline for others to adjust pacing around what I'll talk about below.

In the HM today, my strategy was to do 10 power-pulls each 1k of the HM at the beginning of each 1k (i.e. 21 power sets within the HM). In order to avoid over-taxing myself on the power-portion, I targeted those pulls at 1:49-1:52 (about 4-7 seconds off 2k pace). Then for the rest of the 1k, I targeted holding 1:56-2:00 pace (i.e. 10-15 seconds above 2k pace). I was able to hold this for most of the 21,097 meters of the event, although ran out of some gas and faded over the last 5k making it hard to hold low 1:50s on power portion (faded to 1:54-1:55) and hard to hold 2:00 (faded to 2:00-2:03). My s/m was consistent throughout the event at 23. On the power portion, I'd go to about 26 and on the steady-state portion 22-24.

The log-book broke my splits into 4.3ks and the split paces were as follows: first 4.3k @ 1:55.8/500, 2nd 1:56.9, 3rd 1:57.8, 4th 1:58.5, 5th 1:59.9 (showing a consistent fade of performance). My finish was particularly bad in comparison, but I may have under-estimated how much harder the HM is than the many 60 min rows I've done. The last 10-15 min were very challenging.

I don't view the modest fade in the splits as a significant strategic error, although some people say it is best to "negative split" the entire event. I disagree and research on the strategies of world class distance runners indicates that they typically start fast, purposely fade in the middle and finish fast (although slower than they start). The theory is that if you start too slow, you'll leave so much time on the table that it will be impossible to make it up later. Also it is best to start at a comfortable but strong pace, since you will feel like crap at the end and it is best to leave everything on the table and gut out the end. If you finish the event feeling great with exceptional speed, then you likely didn't max out. An analogy to a triathlon is that you never take it easy on the swim & bike to save everything for the run. It is best to go hard (short of killing yourself) and see what you can do on the run later. You'll typically surprise yourself on the run. You'll never do well if you dog the swim & bike.

As far as hydration or eating breaks (which I've read about in other people's HM strategies), I think that is complete garbage and unnecessary. The HM row isn't so long that any hydration or calorie in-take is needed and these breaks will crush your time without actually providing any material benefit to your rowing pace. Even a fairly average rower in my age group can complete HM in 1:35 (i.e. not that long a time). I can easily do a 2 hour triathlon with almost no water and no calorie in-take. Drinking water on the run portion of a tri wastes precious time since you have to slow down. In half IM triathlons (4:45-5 hours), hydration & calories are absolutely critical due the length of that race, but not in Oly distance. It is best to make sure you are completely hydrated in the hours leading up to your HM row attempt including eating enough and eating right in the hours before. I put extra focus on this in the 8 waking hours before I started the HM. Your body should be fine rowing straight through.

In terms of training for the HM row, I've read a lot of different theories. One guy on the forum who rows well says the only way to be solid on the erg is to erg all the time and he recommends doing 80-100k/week. Maybe that works but I'm on the opposite end of that spectrum doing roughly 5 hours of other cardio/week (swim/cycle/run) and only 15k-25k rowing on a typical week. Maybe I'd be better if I rowed more but I don't want to start sucking in other things because all I'm doing is rowing.

Lastly on strategy, I'd recommend finding some good music to keep you motivated on the HM. I like hard driving/angry music like metal...Metallica, Godsmack or maybe Zeppelin.

I'm definitely not a rowing expert and still hope to improve and I'm interested in hearing other theories on pacing, strategy and training. However, even though I'm not an expert, I was able to put up a time today that ranks in the top 2 percentile of my US age group, so I must know a bit of something about this.