New Personal Best! Brag About That New Pb!

[KeithT]

500m PB - 1:21,4

Impulsive decision to try 500m (before Keith decides to give them another try with rested legs ).

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
1:21.4 500m 1:21.4 649 2533 39
0:15.7 100m 1:18.5 724 2790 42
0:16.3 200m 1:21.5 647 2525 37
0:16.3 300m 1:21.5 647 2525 37
0:16.4 400m 1:22.0 635 2484 40
0:16.8 500m 1:24.0 591 2332 43

The plan was to start very fast, then slowing down to 1:21,5 and hold as long as I can. Worked very good, but I think I can still go a bit faster, the drag was at 170 and at the end I wished my 205 back as my speed got weaker and weaker. Next time I'll try 180 and see how that works.

Thanks Keith for going sub 1:22 last week, this was a great motivation! I'm very curious who will get sub 1:21 first.

Awesome Martin! I knew you weren't going to let my time stand for long and would have to challenge it - that's what is so great about having people push each other. I don't think I will test 500M again too soon but you never know. I do plan to test some other distances soon. Your pacing was solid in the middle and you didn't fade too bad, I think the faster start works for the 500M.

[MartinSH4321]

Of course this building up will take some time, I would guess at least 3-5 years.
Looking at the rakings for 2019 (M HWT 40-49) a sub 1:17 500m would have been 4th place of 1.150, for 30-39 still 8th place of 950, both would be incredible results for me. Getting a similar ranking for longer distances is unrealistic, for 30min I would need 8.700/8.800m, so I totally agree where my genetic benefits are. Nevertheless, I like working on my aerobic capacity, and working on things I'm not already good at has a unique attraction (at least for me).
What's really good is a matter of perspective I think, your standards are very high I estimate

Just out of interest: If I would focus on 500m, and as aerobic capacity is also very important for 500m, don't you think it would be reasonable to still work primarly on my aerobic capacity and then work a few months on speed and strength. I would expect to get my max strength and speed in relative short time, and having a stronger aerobic base will make the difference (like now, not much speed work for me, but good improvements at shorter distances). Or am I missing something?

I don,t think my standards are high, I look at was is possible for given athlete.

Re the shorter work, ofcourse you need some aerobic conditioning, but the main driver is raw speed. There is a very strong relation between low pull / max speed and 500m. Almost always thats the weak link for non sprinter, they lack raw power.

If you would build a speedpeak on your current training, no doubt you improve some, but to really get fast, you need to build your raw strenght. So your squat, deadlift and rows. Get that up, your lowpull will go down and that will improve your short rowing.
You could, if you get the feeling, your current training begins to stall, work for a season on your strenght/speed. For now, you seem to enjoy your training, you do improve, so why change?

Only thing I see, you don,t train your short work, don,t do much strenghtraining but still do relative well on the sprint. The longer work is nice, and I do understand newbies finding 8k impressive, but relative speaking thats not on par with your sprintstuff.
Hence my advice, keep building your fitness, but don,t focus on the very long stuff. Your natural strenght is power/speed, would a waist if you kill that off for something which will never get really good nomatter what.

But, just my 2 cents absolutely do what you yourself like to do.

Re standards - I really think different here, I think to decide if a result is strong or not has to be done by comparing with others and not what an athlete can possibly do. If I'm faster/stronger... than 95/99% that's a strong result, no matter if I had to work hard/long to get there or what I potentially can do with more/better training. But it's OK to have different opinions

As my long-term-plan is to get a good mix of strength and aerobic training there's a good chance I'll seriously work on the short distances with DL squat and rows, maybe not for a whole season, but at least for a few months. Right now, as you wrote, I enjoy the training and have great improvements, so no intention to change a lot

Thanks for your advices and insights, they are always much appreciated!

[MartinSH4321]

500m PB - 1:21,4

Impulsive decision to try 500m (before Keith decides to give them another try with rested legs ).

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
1:21.4 500m 1:21.4 649 2533 39
0:15.7 100m 1:18.5 724 2790 42
0:16.3 200m 1:21.5 647 2525 37
0:16.3 300m 1:21.5 647 2525 37
0:16.4 400m 1:22.0 635 2484 40
0:16.8 500m 1:24.0 591 2332 43

The plan was to start very fast, then slowing down to 1:21,5 and hold as long as I can. Worked very good, but I think I can still go a bit faster, the drag was at 170 and at the end I wished my 205 back as my speed got weaker and weaker. Next time I'll try 180 and see how that works.

Thanks Keith for going sub 1:22 last week, this was a great motivation! I'm very curious who will get sub 1:21 first.

Awesome Martin! I knew you weren't going to let my time stand for long and would have to challenge it - that's what is so great about having people push each other. I don't think I will test 500M again too soon but you never know. I do plan to test some other distances soon. Your pacing was solid in the middle and you didn't fade too bad, I think the faster start works for the 500M.

Thanks, your sub 1:22 really pushed me!
The fast first 100 worked pretty good, next time I think I'll go even faster for the first 7-8 strokes (but I'm in no hurry, unless someone here in the forum beats my time I'll try the 1min too as they should suit me even better ).
One other thing I changed: I put my feet as high as possible, I'm more stable I think, esp. at the start.

[KeithT]

500m PB - 1:21,4

Impulsive decision to try 500m (before Keith decides to give them another try with rested legs ).

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
1:21.4 500m 1:21.4 649 2533 39
0:15.7 100m 1:18.5 724 2790 42
0:16.3 200m 1:21.5 647 2525 37
0:16.3 300m 1:21.5 647 2525 37
0:16.4 400m 1:22.0 635 2484 40
0:16.8 500m 1:24.0 591 2332 43

The plan was to start very fast, then slowing down to 1:21,5 and hold as long as I can. Worked very good, but I think I can still go a bit faster, the drag was at 170 and at the end I wished my 205 back as my speed got weaker and weaker. Next time I'll try 180 and see how that works.

Thanks Keith for going sub 1:22 last week, this was a great motivation! I'm very curious who will get sub 1:21 first.

Awesome Martin! I knew you weren't going to let my time stand for long and would have to challenge it - that's what is so great about having people push each other. I don't think I will test 500M again too soon but you never know. I do plan to test some other distances soon. Your pacing was solid in the middle and you didn't fade too bad, I think the faster start works for the 500M.

Thanks, your sub 1:22 really pushed me!
The fast first 100 worked pretty good, next time I think I'll go even faster for the first 7-8 strokes (but I'm in no hurry, unless someone here in the forum beats my time I'll try the 1min too as they should suit me even better ).
One other thing I changed: I put my feet as high as possible, I'm more stable I think, esp. at the start.

I still haven't tried changing my foot position and I have had some issue with almost coming off the seat - maybe that will help. I think we could both do better on the minute test or sure.

[MartinSH4321]

I still haven't tried changing my foot position and I have had some issue with almost coming off the seat - maybe that will help. I think we could both do better on the minute test or sure.

I had the same issue, I think because of my relative short legs and long upper body, rasing the feet helped me a lot, esp. for 100m, but for all other sprint starts too.
I think I've done too much TT lately and neglected my basic training a bit, but I think I'll try the 1min this week, goal is >380m, looking at the 500m it should be realistic.

[KeithT]

I still haven't tried changing my foot position and I have had some issue with almost coming off the seat - maybe that will help. I think we could both do better on the minute test or sure.

I had the same issue, I think because of my relative short legs and long upper body, rasing the feet helped me a lot, esp. for 100m, but for all other sprint starts too.
I think I've done too much TT lately and neglected my basic training a bit, but I think I'll try the 1min this week, goal is >380m, looking at the 500m it should be realistic.

As you know I haven't tested much at all lately, that 500M was my first in a while and I haven't tested most distances for a long time (over 6 months), so starting to do some but also will not do too many close together. I agree too much of it gets you away from your training plan.

[DavidA]

Slept poorly last night and came up with the idea of trying to improve my half marathon personal best.

My aim was to stay below 2:00/500m. Last PB was 1:26:12.8 (2:02.5/500m).

Luckily, it worked out nicely, but it was some serious work and a lot of sweat

Wow that's a great time!
Congratulations!

David

[bobtherower]

Thanks David

My legs still kinda hurt

[max_ratcliffe]

End of workout splurge - slightly surprised at how tough my rowing workout had been so decided to have a crack at one minute on the SkiErg.

298m, a big improvement from my previous 278m.

Classic fly and die. Touched 71s/m and 1:34 at about 15s and then got progressively slower until about 55s when the body suddenly decided it had nothing left at all. It was an interesting experience doing such a short event. No time for what Stu calls the inner chimp to start telling me to stop and it didn't even hurt.

I was sort of aware of the power decreasing like I was suffering a slow puncture. Until the sudden catastrophic burst failure at 55s

Good fun.

[MartinSH4321]

End of workout splurge - slightly surprised at how tough my rowing workout had been so decided to have a crack at one minute on the SkiErg.

298m, a big improvement from my previous 278m.

Classic fly and die. Touched 71s/m and 1:34 at about 15s and then got progressively slower until about 55s when the body suddenly decided it had nothing left at all. It was an interesting experience doing such a short event. No time for what Stu calls the inner chimp to start telling me to stop and it didn't even hurt.

I was sort of aware of the power decreasing like I was suffering a slow puncture. Until the sudden catastrophic burst failure at 55s

Good fun.

Congrats Max!
Yeah, the short sprints are not such a mental challenge as it's over very fast and don't hurt very long after the effort.

[winniewinser]

End of workout splurge - slightly surprised at how tough my rowing workout had been so decided to have a crack at one minute on the SkiErg.

298m, a big improvement from my previous 278m.

Classic fly and die. Touched 71s/m and 1:34 at about 15s and then got progressively slower until about 55s when the body suddenly decided it had nothing left at all. It was an interesting experience doing such a short event. No time for what Stu calls the inner chimp to start telling me to stop and it didn't even hurt.

I was sort of aware of the power decreasing like I was suffering a slow puncture. Until the sudden catastrophic burst failure at 55s

Good fun.

We'll done.

I did my warmup on the Skierg today but no PB that's for sure.

[hjs]

End of workout splurge - slightly surprised at how tough my rowing workout had been so decided to have a crack at one minute on the SkiErg.

298m, a big improvement from my previous 278m.

Classic fly and die. Touched 71s/m and 1:34 at about 15s and then got progressively slower until about 55s when the body suddenly decided it had nothing left at all. It was an interesting experience doing such a short event. No time for what Stu calls the inner chimp to start telling me to stop and it didn't even hurt.

I was sort of aware of the power decreasing like I was suffering a slow puncture. Until the sudden catastrophic burst failure at 55s

Good fun.

Congrats, for the skierg raw power is very important. Most very strong skiergers are “strongman” strong.

An example is Freddi Smulter.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3NEFH1hIi9/

[max_ratcliffe]

End of workout splurge - slightly surprised at how tough my rowing workout had been so decided to have a crack at one minute on the SkiErg.

<>

Good fun.

Congrats, for the skierg raw power is very important. Most very strong skiergers are “strongman” strong.

An example is Freddi Smulter.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3NEFH1hIi9/

Thanks Henry,
Not the most aesthetic benching I've every seen, but that's pretty strong. Eddie Hall holds the 100m SkiErg record and he had a 500kg deadlift (and I'm sure, is fully natural...).

End of workout splurge - slightly surprised at how tough my rowing workout had been so decided to have a crack at one minute on the SkiErg.
<>

Good fun.

Congrats Max!
Yeah, the short sprints are not such a mental challenge as it's over very fast and don't hurt very long after the effort.

Cheers Martin,
I really should do some row sprints just to see how bad I am! It just always seems like it'd get in the way of training. I'm not going to go to the gym for four minutes!

End of workout splurge - slightly surprised at how tough my rowing workout had been so decided to have a crack at one minute on the SkiErg.

<>

Good fun.

We'll done.

I did my warmup on the Skierg today but no PB that's for sure.

Thanks Alex,
I do enjoy the SkiErg for a spot of variation. I don't really enjoy it as much as the rower for longer pieces, though. I think it's because I need twice as many strokes to get anywhere. When fatigue sets in, it does seem to drag a bit. But for short pieces, it's great fun.

[hjs]

It looks Horrible Arms are also very short, but still he pulls monster times on the skierg. And not just the short stuff, 1k and 2k are also very fast. With still lots to gain.

Eddies Younger brother skiergs seriously. Former rugby pro. Also a strong bencher, 180kg plus.

I find, in comparison with the rower, the limiting factor much more strenght. If someone wants to get better on the skierg, focus on the short stuff first mostly.

[Ted12]

2K 7:56.3

First time have managed sub 8 minutes, might not seem that impressive to the big boys on here but am absolutely over the moon. Very new to indoor rowing having only started 6 months ago but following the BPP really loving the sweat n pain.

Looking to complete a HM before Xmas.