Sub 7 Indoor Rowing Club (UK)

[Rod]

4 x 2k.2'r

Average pace............1:51.9
Average 2k time.........7:27.9
Average SPM.............33
DF.........................115

That was ONE rep more than 12 days ago with the same rests but 0.3 faster on average pace.

Next time it will be 5 reps with the same recoveries then start to reduce them by 15 seconds a time until I'm down to only one minute between reps...ooh what torture!

Susan...........Good luck with the 30r20 and well done on all those metres, you put me to sham with my tiddly amount..

[Rod]

This weeks 10k Time Trial

Total time............38:03.2
Average pace........1:54.1
Average spm.........34
DF......................115

This one was 26.7 seconds faster than last week (1.3 faster on pace) so happy enough with that.

I even managed to get the spm up by one to 34 so a nice comfy cruise....but oh so close to sub 38...oh well...I should do that next week.....''should'' being the operative word there!

[Two Pudding Kid]

Rod - a brilliant week for you on the 4 x 2k and the 10K TT. Hoping next time you crack 38 mins for 10k, and even more mega sessions when you are 60+.

Me - some madness every day this week, (except today):

Monday - 2 x 3k r2:30 (cut rests by 30 secs and upped pace by 0.4 over previous - same sort of strategy as you Rod but over a shorter distance)
Tuesday - 7 x 750m r2:30 (I suggested the interval, the personal trainer came up with the idea of two intervals at 12, 16, 20 spms at 95 DF and a final fling at 24spm). More tiring that you might have expected, and once you have done real slow rate really hard to ramp it up for the following 200m dash which was 49.6 secs.
Wednesday - 5k run in Coventry. 33:31 which is good for me nowadays.
Thursday - weighted squats, lunges, TRX and rope pulls.
Friday - 30 mins r20. 6478m - 2:18.9. Difficult for me to get a good result at 95spm. Anyway safely got the stroke rate to exactly 600. Next week will go for the extra 15 strokes and DF 105. Finished with 200m dash at DF110 and 47.9 so finally sub 2:00 pace just.
Saturday - 30 mins on 2% incline treadmill. Tried to stick 6.1 mph for as long as possible until HR reached 175 then drop pace by 0.1. Hard going for the last 12 minutes but with the aircon in the gym not working it was going to be a sweatfest. 31:02 so about 10 secs quicker than last time.

Got 11,111,111m in my logbook at present

[MPx]

Some excellent results being reported.

Your week on week improvements are colossal Rod: 39 to 38min in 2 weeks and still dropping 1sec a week from the 4x1s. You'll be back in bandit territory well before the tests.

Also some great gains from you too Susan, particularly on the 200 sprint and 5k park run.

I've had a bit of time off. I had thought the rest would do me good, but it seems to have had the opposite effect and simply made everything harder again! So before I went:

11/8 Dumbbells and 30mins easyish for 7557
12/8 Had another go at a 4min row. Having set off too quickly last time I now knew more what I should be capable of and managed to pace it completely flat for a 1186m at 1:41.1. I wont be satisfied until that is north of 1200m but just for now, early in the season, with only 38 scores on the doors, it put me in first place in the geriatric rankings which is something I've never been near before and made me smile!
13/8 3x2k r2 Last time out managed a 1:56.3 avg. This time 1:55.7; 1:54.5; 1:53.2 for a 1:54.5 avg so still 3 or 4 seconds behind Rod but likewise heading in the right direction.

We then had a few days at the Edinburgh fringe while staying with friends. It was great fun, but a tiring few days. Since we've come home, both sessions have been a real slog. Most odd!
18/8 Dumbbells and 30@20 - worked hard for just 7337 m
19/8 AWL Pyramid. Given how below par I felt, I adjusted my target to a sedate range from 1:50 to 1:58 pace and back. Came back a little quicker in the end but a real slog to make myself do it. 1:54.1 overall avg pace compared to 1:50.2 last time when I felt competitive!
Hopefully things will pick back up reasonably quickly from here...

[Two Pudding Kid]

Mike - congratulations on topping the 60+ rankings for 4 minutes, however momentarily. Best wishes on reaching 1200m for this distance. Great work on the 3 x 2k as well.

For me today was 7500m at 2:18.9 pace and 20spm. Very happy with this 34 minute 35 seconds shot at it.

[Rod]

5 x 2k.2'r

Average time.............7:27.0
Average pace.............1:51.7
SPM.........................34
DF...........................113

That was one rep more than last week with the same rests but 0.2 faster on pace so comin' along.

Nice 7500 Susan, well done, strong strokes there at only 20spm.

[Rod]

12k Time Trial.

Could I do it at the same pace (1:54.1) or better than last weeks 10k?
Answer....no...not quite but happy enough with the 1:54.3 achieved.

Overall time was 45:43.3
SPM was 33
DF 113

I was faster earlier on but a bit slower in the last 4k than last weeks 10k....but it will do...for now.....

[MPx]

Great 7500@20 Susan, looks very strong!

Impressive 5x2k Rod, which seems to have set you up for a very fast 12k. Indeed sounds like you may have done the first 10k of the 12 faster than your 10k TT of last week. Still making very rapid progress.

I've had a better week myself, but progress has been slow and hard won, not rapid!
21/8 Dumbbells and 30 mins easyish 7507.
22/8 2k TT. I've only ducked under 7:10 once more since I first did it back in April. I really should be sub 7:05 by now. Anyway set off at 1:46 to try to get there, but just couldn't quite hang on. 1:46.4; 1:46.2; 1:47.1; 148.2 for a 7:07.8 total. Better, but only just!
23/8 Dumbbells and 5k@20 for a 19:49.1
25/8 4x1k r3:30. Last time tried to stay in the 1:47s which I did for three but blew on the last. Tried that again and managed 3 at 1:47.x and a slightly faster last for a 1:47.2 avg. Good!

[Rod]

sounds like you may have done the first 10k of the 12 faster than your 10k TT of last week. Still making very rapid progress.

22/8 2k TT. I've only ducked under 7:10 once more since I first did it back in April. I really should be sub 7:05 by now. Anyway set off at 1:46 to try to get there, but just couldn't quite hang on. 1:46.4; 1:46.2; 1:47.1; 148.2 for a 7:07.8 total. Better, but only just!

25/8 4x1k r3:30. Last time tried to stay in the 1:47s which I did for three but blew on the last. Tried that again and managed 3 at 1:47.x and a slightly faster last for a 1:47.2 avg. Good!

Thanks Mike and well done on the 2k, you'll be under 7 soon enough just keep at it!

I wasn't faster than last weeks 10k at the 10k point of the 14k, I was 1:54.7 at 10k compared to the 1:54.1 of last weeks 10k but did the last 2k in 1:52.0 to bring the average down to 1:54.3 for the full 12k.

Nice work on the 4 x 1k which does predict a faster 2k than you did...also as I've mentioned before...the usual rest for this Pete Plan session (as prescribed in the plan) is 5 minutes not the 3:30 you are allowing yourself so I think you'll get more benefit from it by taking the full rest periods and going faster on the reps.

[Two Pudding Kid]

Mike - great achievement for 2k TT at 7:07.8 and plenty of time to improve before the first 2k of the UK racing season in Cardiff. Well done on the 4 x 1k r3:30 too to keep going at 1:47.x pace.

Rod - excellent result on 5 x 2k to add a rep and still be faster. Good effort on the 12k TT.

Me:

Monday - spa day so more messing than serious although must have burnt a few calories at aqua aerobics, chilled at yoga and did some x-training stuff at the gym before I left
Tuesday - 7500m 20spm 2:20 target, (just made this at 2:19.3 pace). DF 100
Wednesday - 24 x 250m as ran out of time to do 30 reps with 45 secs rest. Kept stroke rate to 28spm but achieved 0.2 pace worse than last week.
Thursday - TRX, pressups, rope pulls, deadlift, squat rows on the cable machine etc.
Friday - should have been 3k x 2 r2 at 2:10 pace but died after only 800m Did some light stretching and left this session early.
Saturday - 25 x 250m at sub 2:05.9. DF 104. Was upping the stroke rate to make up for tiredness so 29spm became 31spm but average was there at 2:05.8.
Sunday rest.
Today - rerun of 30spm r20 in the afternoon.

I got away with six sessions the week before; but I have failed miserably on Friday last week, and Saturday wasnt really the session it should have been. Another 6 session week ahead - 4 ergo, 1 strength, 1 run. After that less sessions as I will need more rest and recovery in September with 2 running half marathons and Exeter.

[Rod]

The session from Hell tonight;

4 x 1k.5'r

Average Pace............1:46.7
SPM........................36
DF..........................113

This was 0.8 faster than the last time I did it 2 weeks ago so improving nicely.....need to get it under 1:45.0 though so just gotta keep at it.

Susan......busy as always, well done m'dear.

Mike.....Now that I've gone ahead of you on this one do you want to start taking the full 5 minute intervals now!

[Two Pudding Kid]

Rod - brilliant work on the 4 x 1k r5.

Me - had to rush to fit it in before the gym closed early today so no chance for any warm-up. Straight into 30 min r20 for 6687m or 2:14.6 pace for a 21m PB 617 strokes I think. Shame I wasnt LWT. DF 105.

PS Marjorie hasnt replied to my text but has recently entered Exeter 5k.

[MPx]

Congrats on the 30@20 PB Susan - always great to get a PB especially when you've been erging as long as we have! Well done indeed.

Also a strong 4x1 r5 Rod - good to see - and I'm not in the least surprised that you're quicker than me! As ever with me, I'm much better at short pieces and intervals than anything with even a hint of aerobic about it. Its probably best for me to continue to minimise rest periods to try to build some stamina. I don't really have pace problems in the short term, the issue is always being able to keep going!

My latest sessions have been:
26/8 Dumbbells and 30 mins at variable pace for 7557m
27/8 I was going to have a rest day, but decided to use it to put in a time for a 500m. I really wanted a sub 1:30 and for the greater part of the row I thought I was going to have one, but I erg'd myself to a virtual standstill in the last few strokes which slowed me to 1:30.0 exactly. B****r! I'll try that again on another non-erg day!
28/8 Dumbbells and 30 mins varipace for 7557m
29/8 The turn of 6x500r2. Last time out I did 5 x 1:43.x and a faster last for a 1:42.5 overall. This time did 5 x 1:42.x and a faster last for 1:41.7 overall - and quite a lot of pain. Pleased to have made such a big gain...but 5 years ago I did use to do this session at around 1:38 so there's still a long way to go.

[Rod]

5 x 2k.2'r

Average time............7:24.6
Average pace............1:51.1
Average spm.............34
Drag Factor..............113

This was 0.6 faster on pace than last week so happy with that and it tells me my next 10k should be well under 38 minutes....just got to actually do it now!

Mike......nice session of 500's. I couldn't get near that at the moment so yes, I'm ok for endurance but not so good on speed.....I'll be working on it though so will chase you hard!

[Two Pudding Kid]

Mike - so close on the sub 1:30 for 500m. Significant improvement on the 6 x 500 r2 even though you had to grin and bear it at times.

Rod - great work on the 5 x 2k r2 and hope you see that 10k in less than 38 minutes soon.

Me:

Tues - 5 x 1k at 2:14.5 pace r2 spm 21 and 5 x 100m sprints spm 33. Had hoped to finish with a 1k at 5k pace which I kind of did, only the stroke rate was creeping up.
Weds - rest
Thurs - 5k TT. Never really got going so steady 2:09 all the way for 21:30.6 which is 0.3 secs slower than my SB which was done as a LWT.
Fri - strength training including TRX, cable rows, sidestepping and weighted squats for the personal training which I followed up with benchpress and stretching
Sat - 2 x 3k r2 at 2:10.6 pace average. Had hoped to go sub 2:10 but couldnt achieve that on the second 3k.
Sun - 71:41 for 10k run, hardly staggering pace but better than I have done for a while
Mon - today- rest

PS. I have given up hoping to be a LWT for Exeter and swopped to HWT category. Wouldnt have won a medal anyway so just got to give it my best shot, (and no worries about how much I put away before and after Lake Vrynwy half marathon run next weekend.