2k help needed, 8 weeks to go

[Minty]

Hi, so I have my 2k on Tuesday (aah!!) tonight I did 2x1500m. My splits are at the bottom, not sure I can do 7:20 but hopefully 7:30?! I was tired and hurt a bit after the first one but didn't feel horrific, my cv felt pretty strong.

Second one I felt quite 'good' in the first 800m? But definitely started to hurt a lot more second half and a lot of lactic once I'd finished. My splits do vary a bit as you can see and aren't that consistent.

Also I had to stop to tighten my straps in the second one as they were getting on my nerves and messing with my head- you can see where my split goes up!

What do you think I can do on Tuesday?

Time Metre /500m s/m
5:36.9 1500 1:52.3 31
1:06.6 300 1:51.0 33
1:07.6 600 1:52.6 31
1:07.7 900 1:52.8 31
1:08.0 1200 1:53.3 32
1:07.0 1500 1:51.6 32


Time Metre /500m s/m
5:42.4 1500 1:54.1 32
1:07.2 300 1:52.0 35
1:08.4 600 1:54.0 33
1:11.3 900 1:58.8 31
1:09.1 1200 1:55.1 32
1:06.5 1500 1:50.8 33

[Dangerscouse]

You definitely have more to give if you weren't lying on the floor regretting every second of your 2km!!!

I don't want to give you an unattainable goal as the last 500m is where it really hurts so 1500m is good but the last 500m is where you need to really dig in and give it all.

7:30 should be achievable, but make sure you stick to your plan and don't let adrenaline take over and think you can go faster than ever. When you get to 250m left if you aren't dying, ramp up the pace and totally empty the tanks.

Best of luck and let us know how it goes. Don't forget your mental comfort blanket of thinking how good you will feel when you achieve your goal. It's mainly just your head telling you stop but you have a lot more to give. They estimate you are only circa 60% of the way to exhaustion when you feel like quitting

[Minty]

You definitely have more to give if you weren't lying on the floor regretting every second of your 2km!!!

I don't want to give you an unattainable goal as the last 500m is where it really hurts so 1500m is good but the last 500m is where you need to really dig in and give it all.

7:30 should be achievable, but make sure you stick to your plan and don't let adrenaline take over and think you can go faster than ever. When you get to 250m left if you aren't dying, ramp up the pace and totally empty the tanks.

Best of luck and let us know how it goes. Don't forget your mental comfort blanket of thinking how good you will feel when you achieve your goal. It's mainly just your head telling you stop but you have a lot more to give. They estimate you are only circa 60% of the way to exhaustion when you feel like quitting

Thanks so much, feeling positive after tonight’s session but super nervous for Tuesday. Need to have my plan ready to help me stay in control. Do you know anywhere I can look to help me decide how to go about tackling my 2k because I’m not really sure how to distribute my splits over the distance etc!

So very much appreciated!

[jackarabit]

The classic for those who cut the pie in equal slices is 500m @ target pace +1”, 500 @ target pace, 500 @ target-1”, 500 @ target-2”. I haven’t figured out if there are actually people who consciously follow this flight plan in erg testing? Obviously those distance markers are familiar from an OTW course and PM default split, but I am absolutely certain that the final 500 of this strategy is a nice, neat parceling of time at pace which doesn’t begin to hint at the pain Involved in executing it.

For those conditioned to believe that higher pace should accompany lower duration by the customary progression of pace and rate ladders in training, 800m @ target +1”, 600 @ target, 400 @ target -1, 200 full gas to fumes to lunge at the line has strategic appeal.

And there’s flat pace all the way, the most efficient use of energy if you can execute.

And simple negative splitting which delays muscle acidity.

And the French Protocol pacing which is in the best case a sort of fly and survive execution.

[RayOfSunshine]

Need to have my plan ready to help me stay in control. Do you know anywhere I can look to help me decide how to go about tackling my 2k because I’m not really sure how to distribute my splits over the distance etc!

So very much appreciated!

I have followed this plan and liked it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5_4upqhYeQ

[Minty]

Need to have my plan ready to help me stay in control. Do you know anywhere I can look to help me decide how to go about tackling my 2k because I’m not really sure how to distribute my splits over the distance etc!

So very much appreciated!

I have followed this plan and liked it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5_4upqhYeQ

oooh watched the video and really liked it, think this is the kind of plan I'm going to go for. Thank you so much!!

[RayOfSunshine]

Need to have my plan ready to help me stay in control. Do you know anywhere I can look to help me decide how to go about tackling my 2k because I’m not really sure how to distribute my splits over the distance etc!

So very much appreciated!

I have followed this plan and liked it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5_4upqhYeQ

oooh watched the video and really liked it, think this is the kind of plan I'm going to go for. Thank you so much!!

Glad I could help! I can't wait to hear the gory details.

[Minty]

Hi everyone, so I got 7:31.3

I have honestly never felt so disappointed, it’s crushing. I just wanted to cry straight after it- still do! Feel like all that hard training was for nothing.

I went into it feeling positive but quite soon in, my splits were all over the place and and I just couldn’t quite tune into that focus. Had my plan but found it difficult to think straight, 500m I started to sprint, it hurt so much. I just couldn’t make back enough time. So frustrating because I KNOW I can do better I know I can. Just need to sort my head out and get that mind trained back to top toughness.

Hopefully next time. Wondering how long it will take for the disappointment to wear off because I just want to forget it ever happened now

Thank you all so much for your help and advice, you’ve been amazing xx

[johnlvs2run]

Hi everyone, so I got 7:31.3

You bettered your best time by 7 seconds, right? If so, that's a nice improvement.
Since times are based on absolute weight, the world record for your size is only a few seconds under 7.
What was your warm up? What were your stroke rates and paces from the start, and for each of the 500 splits?

[hjs]

Hi everyone, so I got 7:31.3

I have honestly never felt so disappointed, it’s crushing. I just wanted to cry straight after it- still do! Feel like all that hard training was for nothing.

I went into it feeling positive but quite soon in, my splits were all over the place and and I just couldn’t quite tune into that focus. Had my plan but found it difficult to think straight, 500m I started to sprint, it hurt so much. I just couldn’t make back enough time. So frustrating because I KNOW I can do better I know I can. Just need to sort my head out and get that mind trained back to top toughness.

Hopefully next time. Wondering how long it will take for the disappointment to wear off because I just want to forget it ever happened now

Thank you all so much for your help and advice, you’ve been amazing xx

You are to negative, that helps you in no way.
Pick the bull by the horns, don,t wait to long and do it again, learn to keep the splits more even. If you where all over the place, you did start to fast. First half should be, relative easy, third 500 it gets tough, 4th, it should hurt, get the rating up, last 100 give it all.

See the positive! Don,t beat yourself down. Really don,t. Learn! And go on.

[lindsayh]

Hi everyone, so I got 7:31.3
I have honestly never felt so disappointed, it’s crushing. I just wanted to cry straight after it- still do! Feel like all that hard training was for nothing.
Hopefully next time. Wondering how long it will take for the disappointment to wear off because I just want to forget it ever happened now
Thank you all so much for your help and advice, you’ve been amazing xx

Hey don't beat yourself up - you did great and learned heaps. I can tell you from experience that no matter how fast you go you will always have that "I coulda done better" and you could have AND YOU WILL. Hard training is never for nothing - you are fitter and stronger and know how to be better next time. I agree with henry - paced better and you will be faster.

[Dangerscouse]

"Failure is the conditment that adds flavour to success"- Truman Capote.

We have all experienced failures, and probably lots of them. It's a learning experience now so try and remember where it went wrong, the pace that you were going, and what went through your head.

It's good to be disappointed as long as you turn it into a positive and faster on it to build up some more motivation for next time. Don't let it beat you and become entrenched in negativity, a 2k is feared for a very good reason. Fear doesn't always have to be a bad thing though. When you harness fear it can take chunks off your time as long as you expect it and work with it.

It sounds like you didn't have a robust plan for when it got tough and adrenaline got you going too fast, too early. In a 2k TT, especially with other people it's all too easy to get carried away. Your time is a solid effort and with some focussed training you will go faster.

I agree with Lindsay, I'm always thinking I could have gone a bit faster, and with Henry that with stricter pacing you'll end up finishing faster

[jackarabit]

“Each minute bursts in the burning room,
The great globe reels in the solar fire,
Spinning the trivial and unique away.
(How all things flash! How all things flare!)
What am I now that I was then?
May memory restore again and again
The smallest color of the smallest day:
Time is the school in which we learn,
Time is the fire in which we burn.” —Delmore Schwartz, For Rhoda

A personal best effort with 6.7” improvement! Looks pretty damn skippy to me Those seconds and watts don’t come for free and I know you worked for all of them prior to and during the test.

Noone I know wills his or her aerobic fitness to improve. They train it. You can’t will yourself to execute a pace strategy either. You have to put it “into practice” well in advance of test date. Suggest you practice your race plan @ say pb pace + 10” (2:03) target. Should be easy enuf to supply thought, judgment, and decision-supporting blood to the brain. Much as I tend to romanticize the Old College Try, I will be delighted to hear from you some day that sharpening ALL the tools has made felling the tree and bucking up the log a whole lot easier. Pressure made coal and also diamond. Don’t get burnt. Be a diamond!

[RayOfSunshine]

You drew a line in the sand. That is all

[Minty]

Thank you all for your kind words and positive replies! I really do think about everything that all of you say and try to take it with me every time I'm on the machine. I'm so grateful to have found this forum!

So I will try to come away from this more positively than I initially did, I guess for my second ever attempt at a 2k it's not tooooo bad. I will continue to train hard and actually think I will continue to follow the Pete plan and attempt another 2k soon

Thank you all of you!!