The Road to Boston 2007

seat5 · Post by **seat5** » January 20th, 2007, 11:13 pm

Tried to row yesterday but just had no motivation, no energy, just plain didn't want to do it, so I didn't. Then up till 3 AM with a troubled teen daughter. I'm drained. Hopefully nerves will stay at bay and I'll survive Rick's race.

seat5 · Post by **seat5** » January 21st, 2007, 1:26 pm

Big thanks to Rick for organizing and holding today's race!

Hi all, I'm really happy, the race went well. I didn't sleep well and kept waking up really really thirsty. Forced my self to eat a bagel around 7:00 this morning and rowed a really slow 2500 meters to try to get limbered up, stretched on my Swiss ball. Dave put the erg in my van (we needed warm up machines at Rick's place) and got over there around 9:00. My heat was supposed to be at 9:30. Started the usual 5K warmup with fast 100's every 500m mark, but then around 1500 m to go it was time to race. Very very nervous and needing lots of drinks. I stuck a post it note to my erg with my target times.

The race itself was pretty fine. The first 1200m or so I was way behind my planned paces, should have been 1:54 ish to start and it was more like 1:56ish. SPM was around 28 or so. With 700 to go I realized it was now or never and got the pace to somewhere in the high 1:40's. Doug
Smith had agreed to count strokes down for me in 10's from the 500 mark and that really helped a lot. There was absolutely nothing left when it ended in fact I couldn't pull the last stroke I meant to do and then had a mini panic attack about getting my feet out. Finish time was 7:32.6, a new PB by 2.5 seconds. Total cotton mouth after and couldn't walk straight and probably was whining at the end because there were a few remarks about it

I felt so bad after I totally forgot to get my splits so I have no idea.

So I survived my first race & even got some Bling (awarded the Bridge Street Toys Mini Sledge Hammer for fastest woman of the day--well, there were only 3 of us after all) and also a lovely Ice Scraper for winning my division. I think Rick Bayko will be sending photos or posting them somewhere--I didn't have a camer with me.

I had the pleasure of meeting Nav Haz in person--unfortunately he pulled a muscle really badly half way through his race--he had been pulling steadily at I think 1:34, amazing--and ended up lying on the floor with his foot still strapped in trying to un-cramp it. He had driven there from NY this morning and had been on the road since like 4 AM. Paul Flack pulled an awesome time, I think it was 6:37 but not sure--he makes it look so easy. Fred Dickie won his race but I didn't get his time. It was fun to see folks from the forum there, Rick Bayko of course who organized it, and Frank and Yvette from Maine.

Anne · Post by **Anne** » January 21st, 2007, 3:43 pm

Hooray for you Carla!!! That is great!!! I must admit, I was thinking about you all through our church service this morning!!!

I'm off to row now with an old friend who coerced me to come to the gym to break up the monotony of rowing solo for an hour or so.

TomR · Post by **TomR** » January 21st, 2007, 8:31 pm

Well done, Carla. Excellent "moral support" Anne.

Yankeerunner · Post by **Yankeerunner** » January 22nd, 2007, 9:42 am

Back to the IP. 2 X 10' AT (5'r)

2400m w/u in 11'

10' 2615m 1:54.7 143hr (recovered to 74hr during rest)
10' 2629m 1:54.1 148hr (rec. to 75hr)

1234m c/d in 6'

116df, 49degrees, 46rhr. As with the TR workout on Friday it seemed that the heart rate is staying lower than the work effort would indicate, and may be a warning sign of impending doom. I'm hoping that since this week is the easiest in the three week IP cycle that the active recovery built into it will bring me back to where I belong. I can't complain too much, since the pace/rate/HR combinations that I've been achieving lately predict something between a 7:08 to 7:16 2km, and yesterday I did 7:06.7.

Excellent race for Carla yesterday. On to Boston.

Rick

TomR · Post by **TomR** » January 22nd, 2007, 9:42 pm

Saturday did 3x10 AT. Felt more tired Sunday than expected, so took a rest day and did 4x1.30/AN today.

split/hr/spm
1.46.9//150/31
1.46.3/152/32
1.45.6/159/33
1.44.6/162/32

If only I could hold these paces for a material length of time.

Someday soon I've got to start training in the morning, to acclimate myself to Crash-B race time.

Bob S. · Post by **Bob S.** » January 22nd, 2007, 11:28 pm

Sunday was a rest day in at least two of the various plans that I had been looking at, but after taking rest days on both Thursday and Friday, I could not afford another one, especially since I expect to lose another day this week to drive to the meet area. For no particularly good reason, I decided on a 60’ minute piece that would include both warm up and cool down. It went O.K. Sunday and, for lack of imagination, I did the same thing again today. Yesterday I started with my jacket on, so I took a 15 second break at 12 minutes (end of the warm up period) to take off the jacket. I took another break of about 20 seconds at the halfway point (i.e. 30’) to set up the fan and turn it on. Today, I started without the jacket and didn’t bother with a fan, so it was a continuous 60’.

Sunday: 60’ 12404m(2:25.1) 12’ of increasing rate (12-----24) 36’@20spm 12’ decreasing rate (18--12). About 35” lost in breaks.
Monday: 60’ 12766m(2:20.9) 6’ of increasing rate (12--18) 42’@20spm 12’ decreasing rate (18--12).

No heart monitor used. More or less negative splitting in the 20spm steady state section of each piece.

Bob S.

Yankeerunner · Post by **Yankeerunner** » January 23rd, 2007, 9:43 am

1 X 60' UT2

1945m w/u in 9'

60' 14484m 2:04.3 21spm 132hr

(12' splits,
12' 2883m 2:04.9 19spm 124hr
24' 2886m 2:04.7 20spm 132hr
36' 2894m 2:04.4 21spm 133hr
48' 2904m 2:04.0 21spm 136hr
60' 2916m 2:03.5 21spm 136hr)

827m c/d in 4'

115df, 50degrees, 46rhr, listening the CD The Best of Warren Zevon. Felt quite comfortable. Compared to the same workout of three weeks ago I was 0.8sec/500m faster while maintaining a lower heart rate.

Passed 21 million lifetime meters somewhere about 45' into it. I did not stop and celebrate as Anne did. Have I become jaded?

Rick

Anne · Post by **Anne** » January 23rd, 2007, 4:05 pm

Yikes Rick,
You might be jaded, but I'm not!!! I'm sitting at my computer ---impressed, dumbfounded, vicariously exhausted, etc! Even had to read your post several times for 21 million to sink in. Huge congratulations from me. I wish I was going to Boston...I'd bring you a bottle of champagne. I almost wish I wasn't racing this weekend so I could uncork a bottle right now and drink a toast to you!

You must have a pretty big assortment of C2 socks and paraphenelia.

Hats off!

Bob S. · Post by **Bob S.** » January 23rd, 2007, 7:35 pm

Tuesday of race week and I am still sitting on my butt here in the boonies instead of on the road to SoCal. There were sounds of a possible leak in the plumbing yesterday and a few calls to the local plumbers brought out the fact that the deep cold spell of the last couple of weeks has been freezing pipes all over the Eastern Sierra country. As a result, the plumbers are busier than bird dogs in fly time. I did find one that said he would get here early this afternoon, but as of mid afternoon, we still haven’t heard from him. I can’t exactly take off for Long Beach and leave my wife stuck with the problem, so this may be the end of the season for me. Without the Beach Sprints, there is no Boston. That leaves only a marathon, plus a little tuning up on a couple of other nonathlon events.

I did manage to get in a workout this morning. The plan that Xeno suggested for last year at this part of the season calls for, “Paddle at least 45-60’ Plenty of warm up same as for racing, include plenty of cool down, very important. First 1000 meters race pace includes start.” I wasn’t quite sure just where the 1k was supposed to fit in, unless it was the very start of the 45-60’. The Pete Plan is out at this time, since it is a three week cycle with no taper provision. My old IP schedule calls for a second session of this week of 1x3’TR. I ended up making up my own workout of 3x15’ “high peak” pyramids, with the TRs in the middle of each. 3’@ low rate, 3’@ a higher rate, 3’ all out, 3’@15spm and 3’@12spm, 5’r. In the first and last pieces, the build up was @15 and 20spm. In the 2nd piece it was @20 and 24spm.

1st: 3129m(2:23.8). Ave. HR@108.
For the 3’TR: 731m(2:03.1). Ave. 33spm. Ave. HR@113.
2nd: 3176m(2:21.6). Ave. HR@127.
For the 3’TR: 734m(2:02.6). Ave. 34spm. Ave. HR@146.
3rd: 3154m(2:22.6). Ave. HR@128.
For the 3’TR: 731m(2:03.1). Ave.34spm. Ave. HR@145.

I had it set for 1’split readings and all nine of the TR 1’ splits were faster than my TR band, so I suppose that the workout was reasonably worthwhile. It was certainly unorthodox, with short warm ups and cool downs included in each piece. My HRs were at 103, 109, and 105 at the ends of the first minutes of the three pieces, so the cool downs and rests were effective to some extent. The final HRs of the three were 104, 109, and 114. The last three minutes at 12spm tended to be faster than the next to the last three minutes at 15spm. The slowest 1’ split of all was the 10th minute of the first piece — 2:47.5. That first 3’TR left me barely going through the motions for the first few strokes of the cool down. For the other two pieces, it wasn’t so bad. This suggests that I should have done a real warm up beforehand, instead a token 6’ at the start of each piece.

Bob S.

seat5 · Post by **seat5** » January 23rd, 2007, 7:45 pm

Anne wrote:Yikes Rick,
You might be jaded, but I'm not!!! I'm sitting at my computer ---impressed, dumbfounded, vicariously exhausted, etc! Even had to read your post several times for 21 million to sink in. Huge congratulations from me. I wish I was going to Boston...I'd bring you a bottle of champagne. I almost wish I wasn't racing this weekend so I could uncork a bottle right now and drink a toast to you!

You must have a pretty big assortment of C2 socks and paraphenelia.

Hats off!

Well, I did see I think 6? C2 marathon mugs and about 8 C2 tumblers at the race venue the other day (Rick's shop). Rick, what do you get the tumblers for, are they for a certain number of meters or did you start getting them instead of marathon mugs at some point? I have to say I was really impressed by the collection, not to mention the literally HUNDREDS of running trophies there... Whew!

seat5 · Post by **seat5** » January 23rd, 2007, 10:03 pm

Bob, that is an awful shame!!! I hope it gets straightened out in time if that is even possible.

I took a day off yesterday and was tempted to take another one today! However I decided I'd better stay right with the IP now on schedule and not screw up. So today was

2 x 13 UT1 max targ 2:05/22 actual

3153 2:03.6/22
3192 2:02.1/22

It felt pretty logey on the first interval but the second one felt better. I used Row Pro just to see what it was like. The trees are pretty. My computer decided I wasn't doing anything and the screen shut off half way through the 2nd one but I banged the keyboard on the way by to get it going again. It seems kind of pointless to use RowPro alone, I must say, especially if you're not even using a HRM. Does anyone know if the rower in the 3D set up is actually doing the same stroke ratio you are doing? Because it seemed to be doing exactly what I was doing, not just the rate, but the drive/recovery ratio. Just curious if this was a coincidence.

TomR · Post by **TomR** » January 24th, 2007, 12:20 am

Yankeerunner wrote: Compared to the same workout of three weeks ago I was 0.8sec/500m faster while maintaining a lower heart rate.

Passed 21 million lifetime meters somewhere about 45' into it.

Rick,

I'm glad to see that after 21 million meters, you're seeing some improvements! Keep at it.

I did 2x15/1

2.07.4/134hr
2.07.4/139hr

HR high for that pace and duration, but I had a long day, and I didn't sit on the machine until after 10 p.m. Perhaps that's a partial explanation.

Good luck getting to the races, Bob.

whaskell · Post by **whaskell** » January 24th, 2007, 7:02 am

I'm back... I think.

Been sick since last Thursday - yesterday was the first day I felt 'back to normal'. I rowed 30min easy this morning, 7249m at 2:04.2 pace. Generally started out between 2:15 to 2:20 pace and picked it up throughout until I was seeing some 1:58's at the end. It hasn't helped that I have a major project deadline this coming Monday. I probably won't start back on the IP workouts until next Tuesday.

Carla, Excellent race at the NEC. Wish I could have been there to race also.

Yankeerunner · Post by **Yankeerunner** » January 24th, 2007, 9:10 am

8 X 1.5' (3'ar)

2918m w/u in 13'

1.5' 427m 1:45.4 34spm 137hr
1.5' 428m 1:44.9 35spm 143hr
1.5' 430m 1:44.5 35spm 146hr
1.5' 431m 1:44.2 35spm 148hr
1.5' 432m 1:44.0 35spm 149hr
1.5' 433m 1:43.8 35spm 149hr
1.5' 434m 1:43.6 35spm 149hr
1.5' 440m 1:42.3 37spm 153hr

1657m c/d in 8'

114df, 50degrees, 48rhr, listening to Dropkick Murphys on the CD player. As with last week it seems so relatively powerful, getting paces in the 1:44s and 1:43s while doing only 35spm. Three days ago in the race 35spm was only getting me 1:48s. Big honkin' difference between keeping it up for 7' instead of 1.5'.

Gotta rush off to the dentist now. (Just a scheduled checkup)

Rick