New Personal Best! Brag About That New Pb!

[jackarabit]

Two recent PBs: Bit off more than I could chew in the 2K. I hope to go out at 2.18 next time and try to go negative to get under 9'. At least the 5K shows a flatter rate. I have lost 20 lbs. and will go lgtwght when I lose another ten probably in about three months. Maybe I'll get even slower. Having fun anyway. Thought about doing half marathon during week three of dog daze but now saving it for final week.





Jack

[jackarabit]

This 2K done today looks pretty good cf. to the one from 13 Aug. which I posted previously. Started with a reasonable split definitely went negative in the final K. This one was done at the Y and retaining a shred of dignity by avoiding a fish out of water sprint and exercise cough meant I missed going sub 9' but the piece felt in control even when I detected a slight tendency to redline in the second 500 and laid off the pace a little bit there. Got me up to 26 percentile in HW 60-69; first time I've been in the third quartile. Half marathon tomorrow to finish off week 4 Dog Days. Jack

[lindsayh]

good improvement - probably attributed in part to the increase in SR from 24 to 26. Best way forward is to work at increasing rate towards 30+ - requires increasing fitness but very possible. Also note the better pacing of the second one - negative split like that is very good)

(My own PB this week on 10km @1:53.5 = 37:49.5 - very happy with that)

[jackarabit]

I'll take that as training gospel, Lindsay. Rate up and keep the bulb lit at the same brightness. I have trouble keeping my big head while wearing my tiny aerobic cap(acity). CV conditioning from erging is a life preserver thrown to me after a lifetime of less than optimal attention to physical fitness but measuring progress and regress by racing against myself makes the process a bit of entertainment that I really enjoy. Congrats on the tenner. My jaw drops at the mention of 1.53 times 20!

jack

[lindsayh]

thanks. Learning to rate up is the path to faster 2ks in particular.
It is a great way of improving CV fitness in a measurable way - probably the best tool of all IMO.
The beauty of it is that there are no age or fitness limits - I have seen serious racing well into the 80's and some >90s having a good go at it as well.
The 10km was a lot of "fun" really but close to 100%. It was done with a 70+ mlwt erg buddy who set a new WR of 38:47 (@1:56)!! (Now that is jaw dropping)

Good luck with a sub 9:00 next time

[jackarabit]

My first HM effort and my best! I did the HM distance in one day during the Solstice Challenge but I had a nite's sleep between the first 6K and the second 6K and then long muffin and smoothie breaks between the final three pieces. You could say I did the distance in about 12 hrs. elapsed. I was encouraged to believe I could complete a legitimate HM with a much less luxurious recovery.

This time I planned for a descending ladder of distances 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1K and a break ladder of 2, 4, 6, 4, and 2 minutes. I got on the erg this morning with my bottle of cut Gatorade and a pair of contractor gloves (which I didn't use) and set off at a warmup pace. I could almost see the fog and fish jumpin. After 30' I saw I was way too comfy dieseling along at 5'+ 1K splits and decided to throw out the breaks until I saw a single digit up front on the yardage remaining. At 1 hr. elapsed I was under 9K to go and stopped for nearly six minutes. No other inactive breaks but I did pull one handed at about 3K to wet my whistle. I had enuf left in the tank for a weak sprint. I find it odd that I was bandy-legged getting off the rower but my legs weren't loaded up with lactate like they would be after a bike century ride. I am not quite the "black shirt" in the C2 rankings for HM 60-69 but pretty close to. The rest period skews the watts considerably and I feel pretty puny anyway so I chopped the split with the rest break and the sprint on the final 97m out of the average to get 88watts av. That's less than 4 watt/minutes per stroke and I'm still happy! I'll pick up the remaining week #4 Dog Days yardage easily. No neck or lumbar pain from this workout but have the Epsom salts handy in case. Usual pain in my left hand and right hip but relief comes quickly from simply getting off the seat. Jack

[lindsayh]

been pushing hard for some months with some tests in the last few weeks with good results.
All PBs
10km - 37:49.5
HM - 1:25.15.0
300m - 49.5
1km - 3:10.8
(and an SB 500 @ 1:26.2)

[ArmandoChavezUNC]

Not a PB, but definitely a seasonal best - 6k test 1:47.6 split. Only picked up erging/rowing back up about 1.5 months ago. Hopefully I can match my 6k PB before fall season is over

[jackarabit]

I'm struggling to imagine 2.00 pace for the HM! 42x 500! Where do you put the breaks, Lindsay? Do you even take breaks?

Jack

[rlk]

Some new PR's. Not bad for my second half century.

2K/6:30.7 -- broke my old (6:32.4) PR, but actually think I could have squeezed out some more. My start was a bit soft (1:38) and it wasn't quite the agony I'm used to it being, even though my HR hit 178, which is as high as it goes. Still, sub-6:30 should be within reach. Maybe use slightly higher drag (113 vs. 112).

8568/30m -- busted last year's PR of 8520, although it was entirely because I warmed up for about 10 minutes. My best 25 minutes were just about identical. I couldn't quite hold on for 8572, which would be 1:45 even (my final 5m was 10 meters less than the previous splits).

500m/1:32.1 -- this one should have been (and was) a gimme. I'm not much of a sprinter, but my old 1:33.5 was itself done on an off day, and this was done after 1h at a fairly light pace (1:57). Based on my 2K pace of 1:37.7, I'd expect this to be around 1:31-1:31.5.

1000/3:11.3 -- never tried this particular distance before, so by default it's a PR. That one too was after 1h at 1:57, so I could probably do better. Based on my 2K pace of 1:37.7, I'd expect this to be around 1:34.5-1:34.7, so about 3:09.

Still have to attack 1h and HM some time. Based on my 30m, I'd expect a 1h to be about a 1:48 pace (16667, current 16604); the HM should be about 1:49 pace (76:39, current 77:3.5).

[lindsayh]

I'm struggling to imagine 2.00 pace for the HM! 42x 500! Where do you put the breaks, Lindsay? Do you even take breaks?
Jack

No breaks in the HM Jack - some go right through the FM without one a break as well though I haven't done one of those. Just find a pace and hold it - it actually isn't that hard in some ways say compared to a really hard 2km of even a 500m. Just a test of fitness and concentration. We had a guy at our gym do 100km last year and he didn't take a break in that!
My HM time though reflects my sprinty background - there are guys our age way faster than me from 5k and up. (and have a look at the post just above this one for some really nice distance stuff).

[Bob S.]

Like Lindsay says, the HM does not require a break. My PB, was done at age 81, so it took a lot longer than most people would take, but it was still less than 94 minutes. With good hydration, you can go for that long a time without needing additional water and you certainly don't need any additional calories for that period of time. The hardest part about getting through the long pieces is soreness in the butt and you can train yourself to tolerate a fair amount of that. In getting ready for the FM, which for me was well over three hours, I worked up to it by doing progressively longer pieces, up to well over 2 hours without breaks, although I did take breaks for each of the FMs that I have done.

Bob S.

[jackarabit]

Yes I see Rik projects 1:17 for the HM. WOW. Jack

[rlk]

Yes I see Rik projects 1:17 for the HM. WOW. Jack

(that's rlk, not rik)

I'm an endurance type, pure and simple. I can go for quite a long time, and it's rare that I really hit the wall, but for short bursts of power, I'm not much good.

[Edward4492]

I must say theses PR's by the old guys are VERY impressive! Must be fun bein' in your 60's and positively trashing the young guys in the gym. I was going head to head with one of the young buck crossfitters on a day I had scheduled a sub-max 2000m. Not super impressive by the standards of the group on this board, but I managed a nicely paced 7:06 and finished so far ahead of the kid next to me (7:30-ish) that they thought I quit and did an HD. These are the moments us old bastid's live for! (God knows the little victories are few and far between). Anyway, coming off my last "high mileage" training cycle I'm sitting on PR's of:

500m 1:33.4 1000m 3:21.6 2000m 7:01.8 5000m 18:54 10,000m 39:14.7 HM 1:26:14.8

57yr LWT 6' 164lb

I think Bob S said it best in one of his posts about distance work, "you just have to decide to do it". Closest I came to a break on the HM was some one-handed pulls while I sucked some water every 5k. I think I popped a gel at the half way point (gels are used extensively by cyclists). And that's it. An extra seat cushion to save the butt. That's about it.

Just coming off an endurance phase and starting the speed work to assault the 7-minute 2k barrier. Thanks to the postings of the true erg-beasts that graciously share their excellent advice here; I have some direction. Goal has been to rate up and carry the watts/ stroke at a minimum of 9.5, target of 10. Pulling 10 w/s at a 31-32 will get it done.

Maybe I should say easier SAID than done!