[In]decent Intervals

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Meh last 3 weeks. Lockdown has continued, pretty much, and I've pretty much stayed on the ErgBike rather than the rower. Weather has played a role in that as well: for some perverse reason, days when I've scheduled rower workouts have turned out to be too windy/rainy/punctuated by lightning to work out when I've set that up. Today is a case in point -- around 1 pm I got a text from the local weather authorities to the effect that severe thunderstorms again were in the area so be prepared to take cover. We're talking 40mm of rain, 70-100 km/h winds, hail, and potentially dangerous lightning. Since I'd be erging on a large metal machine 18 floors up on a balcony featuring metal sunscreens, prudence dictated a change of plans yet another time....

The highlight since my last post is probably yesterday's 70 x 500m on 30" BikeErg workout. I probably could have gone faster than my 1:43.7 average but I was consciously trying to keep my HR stable in the mid 140s. Today was 30 x 500m on 30", negative splitted, in 1:39.3, again being more conscious of HR than of pace. I averaged 142 bpm, not getting over 150 bpm until my trademark fast last rep (1:27.0 pace, 157 bpm).

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More or less the same since my last post here a month ago. Restrictions have been eased in Poland, but as I'm still in the high-risk pool on account of the compromised immune system nothing much has changed for me. I did manage to win my age group in the recently completed BikeErg [4k] Sprints, with a 6:36.9. TBH I should have been in maybe 6:28ish form, but got hit very hard by allergies. And Ms Nav and I spent the last week on holiday on Poland's Baltic seashore. I managed to get in daily 40-60 km bike rides on my Specialized, but otherwise did diddly as far as training. Today I'm back in Wroclaw, where I just finished 12 x 1' on the BikeErg on 30" rest in 1:39.0. Trademark fast last in 1:29.9, but otherwise fairly pedestrian....

Also TBH, given the extreme unlikelihood of any in-person indoor rowing championships this fall, my desire to have a go at the 65+ MHW 2k wr after my birthday is rather small. Unless something changes, it would seem that 2k records still need to be done at C2-sanctioned competitions. And if there aren't going to be any such venue events, why bother training that hard. If anyone from C2 bothers to read this, please consider a formal clarification of the record requirements in view of COVID-19. Those of us who have objective shots at setting records would like to know early enough in advance that we can train accordingly. Waiting until (say) mid-November for a formal announcement about a December event like the British Indoor Champs (nearly 100% likely to be virtual if it happens at all) is way too late training-wise....

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More BikeErg today, cycling in 64% humidity that felt like a swamp. Reprise of yesterday: 12 x 1' on 30"....



Not too horrible a result, conditions notwithstanding.

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Haven't posted in a month. which more or less reflects my semi-lockdown feelings about training hard....

I continue to slog away in a desultory manner on the ErgBike, fighting heat, humidity, and bad pollen counts (allergies). Probably the highlight of the last 30 days has been my workout on 8/6: 10,000m (the ErgBike equivalent of a rower 5k) in 17:04.2. That was just a couple of seconds slower than Ian McNuff's 60+ MHW WR on the rower. One of these days the weather might break, and maybe I'll take a run at [my own] unofficial 60+ 1-hr record on the BikeErg. Meh....