5K challenge week 35

Gerhard · Post by **Gerhard** » August 24th, 2007, 10:27 am

It's not week 35

, but who cares

:

19:55.2 @ 25SPM

Reason for trying early: I've had two bad rows during this week, which made me realize I'd need a good day to break 20. I'll be away during the weekend, having two parties and no training. I'll be back on monday with an untrained and poisoned body.

So I gave myself the choise: either break 20 today and party, OR fail today and no drinking during the weekend. It gave me the mental push I needed to do it!

I started around 2:02 and slowly increased to 2:00 around 2500 meters. My HR was 5 higher than it was during my final test run and reached 180 at 2K. It was 188 and above for the final 2K (which I did @ 1:58) and I must admit that until today I never really realized what 'ALL-OUT" means. For me now it means 200 strokes at (almost) maximum heart reate.

I'm a happy piece of dead meat right now, looking forward to a few large beers. I'll try one more 5K next friday, because the challenge said week 35. But to be honest: I don't really care. I broke 20.

Gerhard · Post by **Gerhard** » August 24th, 2007, 10:32 am

DUThomas wrote:Hmmm -- I see you went with a confidence-destroying bad row followed by a fly-and-die; I opted for the equally effective three days of bad rowing! I avoided a fourth day of desultory rowing by getting on the NordicTrack ski machine instead. More seriously, your evening session suggests you're on track to hit 20:00.

I'm hoping to make my first attempt tomorrow. Since I didn't do a practice run to see if 19:30 is even realistic for me, I'll just have to find out this weekend!

Bad workouts don't always lead to bad races! Good luck with your first attempt. It hurts bit it's worth it

DUThomas · Post by **DUThomas** » August 24th, 2007, 10:35 am

Congratulations!

And who cares whether it's week 35 or not!

You need to change your signature!

DavidA · Post by **DavidA** » August 24th, 2007, 12:46 pm

Gerhard,
Congratulations!!

That's a good time, and it's always nice to have a goal and to beat it.

David

Snail Space · Post by **Snail Space** » August 24th, 2007, 6:05 pm

Gerhard wrote:19:55.2 @ 25SPM

Nice one, Gerhard. Enjoy the beers.

Now build on that achievement: aim for 7500m in 30'.
When you've cracked that go for 10K in 40'.

As you break the endurance thresholds you will find that your 2K time improves dramatically without even doing any specific training for it.

Cheers
Dave

Bob S. · Post by **Bob S.** » August 24th, 2007, 11:58 pm

Gerhard wrote:It's not week 35 , but who cares :

19:55.2 @ 25SPM

But to be honest: I don't really care. I broke 20.

Great going, Gerhard!! It was a worthy goal and you did a fine job of coming in well under the target time. In addition, the negative splitting looked very good.

Bob S.

tomhz · Post by **tomhz** » August 25th, 2007, 7:02 am

Well done, Gerhard,

This is day zero! I was in the same position about 6 years ago

now go for 6K@2:00 (day 90 for me)
then 30min@2:00 (day 180 for me)
then 10K@2:00 (day 370 for me)
then 1h@2:00 (day 730 for me)
then HM@2:00 (still to be done current PB pace is 2:00.5)

Try if you can beat me!

PS: a 20:00 min 5K still isn't a walk in the park for me. Hard work!

Tom

DUThomas · Post by **DUThomas** » August 25th, 2007, 11:02 pm

Gerhard,

After much procrastinating this morning -- 3K warmup, then another 1K, then another 1K, then 12 minutes on a treadmill -- I finally attempted the 5K. 19:25.1!

I was thrilled with the result, but the row felt undisciplined toward the end. The /500m paces for my 1K splits were 1:58.1 @26spm; 1:57.0 @28spm; 1:56.9 @28spm; 1:56.3 @29spm; and 1:54.1 @30spm. I'd appreciate any suggestions that people may have on improving the pacing and stroke rates.

For what it's worth, I have a Model B with a PM3; the drag factor is too high at 160ish. Through the miracle of duct tape, I'm slowly bringing it down (but found a sudden drop to be hard to manage).

So, I think we're ready for a new challenge! I liked Tom's suggested challenge, but I'm open to other suggestions. Perhaps another run at a new 5K goal? A 2K?

Cheers!
David

tomhz · Post by **tomhz** » August 26th, 2007, 4:37 am

Gerhards results inspired me for doing a fast 5K too. My fastest this season was 20:28 but this was definitely not all-out.
Yesterday I did 2x5K with 20min rest. 20:22 and 19:23.6.
I think I could have gone sub 19:15 because I started the first 1K with 2:01 pace. But the final 2500m really were record-chasing!
I will chase after a sub 19:00 within the next 4 months.

Tom

Gerhard · Post by **Gerhard** » August 27th, 2007, 6:47 am

DUThomas wrote:Gerhard,

After much procrastinating this morning -- 3K warmup, then another 1K, then another 1K, then 12 minutes on a treadmill -- I finally attempted the 5K. 19:25.1!

I was thrilled with the result, but the row felt undisciplined toward the end. The /500m paces for my 1K splits were 1:58.1 @26spm; 1:57.0 @28spm; 1:56.9 @28spm; 1:56.3 @29spm; and 1:54.1 @30spm. I'd appreciate any suggestions that people may have on improving the pacing and stroke rates.

For what it's worth, I have a Model B with a PM3; the drag factor is too high at 160ish. Through the miracle of duct tape, I'm slowly bringing it down (but found a sudden drop to be hard to manage).

So, I think we're ready for a new challenge! I liked Tom's suggested challenge, but I'm open to other suggestions. Perhaps another run at a new 5K goal? A 2K?

Cheers!
David

Congratulations on your first 'official' PB! Well done, you are way ahead of me. Looks like a very good row to me, especially the pacing. The rate may be a bit high , but if it works for you, who cares. Impressed that you can keep the rate up for 5K, I know I can't (stroke rate 25 / 26 seems to be my maximum for anything over 3K).

Just a tought:

I do think we are ready for a new challenge. How about a 10K in 43 followed by a 2K in week 51 (just before the wrecking holiday weeks)? The 10K challenge would form the aerobic base for the 2K challenge.

No need set 'winning' criteria, since we are mainly competing against ourselves. But it's nice to compare the results with our current times.

My current 2K PB = 7.42, but I'm convinced it should be somewhere between 7.30 and 7.35. I''ll do a 2K test later this week.

My current 10K PB = 42.09 and I think that's pretty accurate.

What do you think?

Gerhard · Post by **Gerhard** » August 27th, 2007, 8:16 am

tomhz wrote:My fastest this season was 20:28 but this was definitely not all-out.

I will chase after a sub 19:00 within the next 4 months.

Tom

And I thought i was getting closer / would soon be able to keep up with you on our Rowpro workouts

.

Seriously, I'll be happy to join you on rowpro and push your times down towards the 19 minutes!

DUThomas · Post by **DUThomas** » August 27th, 2007, 11:39 am

Gerhard wrote: I do think we are ready for a new challenge. How about a 10K in 43 followed by a 2K in week 51 (just before the wrecking holiday weeks)? The 10K challenge would form the aerobic base for the 2K challenge.

No need set 'winning' criteria, since we are mainly competing against ourselves. But it's nice to compare the results with our current times.

I like the new challenge.

I confess I'm torn about the absence of numerical goals. On one hand, I think I need them to make a true effort; on the other hand, I'm rowing to get and stay in shape and don't want to be too preoccupied with the numbers.

Ideally, I'll set PBs in those distances in the next week or so. Paul's law suggests that, based on my 5K time, my 10K time should be about 40:30 and my 2K time should be 7:20ish. We'll see how well Paul's law and I get along. Despite our non-numerical challenge, I'm seeing some convenient whole numbers as targets (and am also thinking about Tom's goal)!

Gerhard · Post by **Gerhard** » August 27th, 2007, 4:08 pm

My realistic targets are (under) 41 minutes for 10K and (under) 7:15 for the 2K (considering the 2K is 4 months away and my PB for 1K is 3.30).

I think I can guess your round numbers

I'll setup a new thread tomorrow, to spam our progress.

tomhz · Post by **tomhz** » August 27th, 2007, 5:07 pm

Gerhard wrote:My realistic targets are (under) 41 minutes for 10K and (under) 7:15 for the 2K (considering the 2K is 4 months away and my PB for 1K is 3.30).

I think I can guess your round numbers

Your talents apparently are different then mine, or you are pessimistic about your 10K target. My PB's are 38:45 for 10K, 7:17 for 2K and 3:31 for 1K

I think you are allready capable of getting close to 41:00 on the 10K.

Tom

DUThomas · Post by **DUThomas** » August 27th, 2007, 5:36 pm

I think I agree with Tom on your 10K target. If you're not already there, I think you're probably very close to a sub-41 10K. How recent was your 10K PB?