New Personal Best! Brag About That New Pb!

[Anth_F]

Good job, Anth!

Thanks a lot my friend.

[jackarabit]

Damn skippy Anthony! I underguesstimated you.

[spinoza]

Congrats, but why not keep at for a while? This is at best a 90% effort, working on your speed could nicely flow in your longer work later on.

Thanks guys... if i work on speed stuff a lot i will end up hating the erg and probably selling it which is not what i want. I was cursing the erg after this 500 today, it can be pure evil. The simple fact is, hard painful stuff on the erg is just not for me. (call it a cop out or whatever but it is what it is)

Congrats on the PR.

In general, it's probably not very productive to be in a lot of pain -- that's sort of your body telling you to stop doing what you're doing, often for good reason. I think something like the 20/80 rule (even 20% seems like too much) may be appropriate for most people, where 20% of your workouts should be relatively uncomfortable, and the remaining 80% should be fairly comfortable. If working out is too painful, or requires you to psych yourself up too much, it'll probably be too difficult to maintain for the long haul.

I think this is probably why periodization is key.

[Anth_F]

Damn skippy Anthony! I underguesstimated you.

Yes Jack... i had no idea what time to expect to be honest. But very happy with that time for my first 500 test

Congrats, but why not keep at for a while? This is at best a 90% effort, working on your speed could nicely flow in your longer work later on.

Thanks guys... if i work on speed stuff a lot i will end up hating the erg and probably selling it which is not what i want. I was cursing the erg after this 500 today, it can be pure evil. The simple fact is, hard painful stuff on the erg is just not for me. (call it a cop out or whatever but it is what it is)

Congrats on the PR.

In general, it's probably not very productive to be in a lot of pain -- that's sort of your body telling you to stop doing what you're doing, often for good reason. I think something like the 20/80 rule (even 20% seems like too much) may be appropriate for most people, where 20% of your workouts should be relatively uncomfortable, and the remaining 80% should be fairly comfortable. If working out is too painful, or requires you to psych yourself up too much, it'll probably be too difficult to maintain for the long haul.

I think this is probably why periodization is key.

Thankyou.

Yes definitely even 20% can seem too much! i should have really done a little short speed interval work before attempting this. But its done now so, onwards...

It ultimately comes down to what you want to get out of the erg!!! Everyone has their own goals and things of what they want to get out of it all. For me, it's really just to keep in nice trim shape (keeping the fat off) and feel fitter which i can maintain it seems by doing rows that give me just the right enjoyable sweaty workout where i know i have gave effort and feel good afterwards for it. Doing this hard painful stuff makes you feel like crap afterwards!!!!

[left coaster]

Good effort Tony!

Shame about your lungs... best to work up to these things. I do 500m interval work around 1:45, or something similar, with some regularity. Like you, I don't care for feeling burnt up after a max effort. Approaching max, but not hitting it, with some consistency helps a lot.

[lindsayh]

Shame about your lungs... best to work up to these things. I do 500m interval work around 1:45, or something similar, with some regularity. Like you, I don't care for feeling burnt up after a max effort. Approaching max, but not hitting it, with some consistency helps a lot.

This is all about different strokes for different folks of course.... You definitely are better working towards it first but I just "love" that totally spent feeling after a 500m - you can learn to embrace it! (but you don't have to of course - your training is already great Anth)

[hjs]

Congrats, but why not keep at for a while? This is at best a 90% effort, working on your speed could nicely flow in your longer work later on.

Thanks guys... if i work on speed stuff a lot i will end up hating the erg and probably selling it which is not what i want. I was cursing the erg after this 500 today, it can be pure evil. The simple fact is, hard painful stuff on the erg is just not for me. (call it a cop out or whatever but it is what it is)

Haha, do what you find best, you are simply fully untrained at stuff like this. You never push your body to the max.
If you are sprintfit a 95% effort is almost easy. Look how shawn did stuff like this daily, months in a row.
On the other hand don,t ask him to do steady state, after a week he would hang himself.

[Anth_F]

Good effort Tony!

Shame about your lungs... best to work up to these things. I do 500m interval work around 1:45, or something similar, with some regularity. Like you, I don't care for feeling burnt up after a max effort. Approaching max, but not hitting it, with some consistency helps a lot.

Thanks! Yeah my lungs were stinging for a while after. It's a very unpleasant feeling! Even more so than the 8x500's i used to do. If i done some 150m interval sprints at that pace i would be ok, but a 500m in one go really shocked my system.

This is all about different strokes for different folks of course.... You definitely are better working towards it first but I just "love" that totally spent feeling after a 500m - you can learn to embrace it! (but you don't have to of course - your training is already great Anth)

Indeed it is, Lindsay. Some get off on doing the hard stuff a lot!!! And it's definitely something better working towards... i'm not done with this. There will be a point this year that i want to better my current 500m time, and next time i am going to work toward it properly

Thanks on my current training as well, Lindsay.

Haha, do what you find best, you are simply fully untrained at stuff like this. You never push your body to the max.
If you are sprintfit a 95% effort is almost easy. Look how shawn did stuff like this daily, months in a row.
On the other hand don,t ask him to do steady state, after a week he would hang himself.

Very fully untrained for this, which is why i am even more impressed with what i pulled for a first attempt, Henry

Yep, Shawn kills the short stuff!!!!! And like i mentioned to Lindsay, some folks love all that. Pushing my body to the max is something i would have done in my 20's fo sure.

[left coaster]

Try 3 x 500 at about 85/90% or your pace, minimum 3:30 rest. 8 x 500 doesn't quite get you there, need to throttle back too much to push past 4 reps.

[Anth_F]

Try 3 x 500 at about 85/90% or your pace, minimum 3:30 rest. 8 x 500 doesn't quite get you there, need to throttle back too much to push past 4 reps.

Not a bad idea that tbh!

Say maybe do them @ 1:39-1:40'ish pace ? At least it's going to get my body used to harder stuff.

But again, i might not keep them up if they kill me. I have a habit of thinking to myself (why are you putting yourself through this absurd pain and body stress? Just to see some impressive numbers on a monitor screen. Because at the end of the day thats all it really is, for me. I don't do competitions, and don't plan to either...i'm only in this for fitness so whats the point? This is what i think to myself) But then on the flip side, i do have certain goals in my mind (which is healthy for sure, and keeps motivation levels good) but i want to try achieve them without putting myself through excessive pain, and i think i can do it given enough time. There is no rush for this stuff!!!!

[left coaster]

That's pretty much exactly what I do.

I'm usually still in OK shape after and can go on to do a few K at 2:10 to wash out the lactic acid etc.

I tend to bulk up a bit when throwing down hard, low rep, intervals like that. Wifie likes it.

[Anth_F]

Thanks for the input, lefty. 3x intervals sounds a good number to me!!! I remember when doing the 8x500's and after rep 4 i was feeling it a lot.

Doing 3 at greater pace seems better, then i should still be able to get in a nice steady 3-4k after. Of course i will be doing a 2.5k WU as well beforehand so theres like 6-6.5k total + those intervals. Sounds like a good days erg work to me

[spinoza]

I've done several rowing sessions since I last posted. I've done some easy 5K's, some 2.5K's before and after lifting sessions, an 6x250m interval (keeping the pace in the range 1.26-1.30), and two 5x20sec all out sprints.

During the first all out sprint session, I low-pulled 1.14 (PR). This was a big improvement. I don't recall what my average distance per 20 sec sprint was.

During my second sprint session, on my third set I low-pulled 1.11 (PR). I seem to be finding my groove, as these big improvements are surely more the result of technique improvements more than anything.

I was absolutely spent after the last sprint session. I lifted heavy immediately before the sprints, but I felt okay otherwise. But, when I got home, I just felt fatigued. I fell asleep on the couch almost immediately after arriving home.

[hjs]

I've done several rowing sessions since I last posted. I've done some easy 5K's, some 2.5K's before and after lifting sessions, an 6x250m interval (keeping the pace in the range 1.26-1.30), and two 5x20sec all out sprints.

During the first all out sprint session, I low-pulled 1.14 (PR). This was a big improvement. I don't recall what my average distance per 20 sec sprint was.

During my second sprint session, on my third set I low-pulled 1.11 (PR). I seem to be finding my groove, as these big improvements are surely more the result of technique improvements more than anything.

I was absolutely spent after the last sprint session. I lifted heavy immediately before the sprints, but I felt okay otherwise. But, when I got home, I just felt fatigued. I fell asleep on the couch almost immediately after arriving home.

Thats more like it, you might like the sprintthread. These numbers much more reflect you weightsnumbers.

[jackarabit]

Beautiful thing that, Remi!