Sub 7 Indoor Rowing Club (UK)

[Two Pudding Kid]

Marjorie - Congratulations on your medals and 2k and 500m times at WIRC, and improving them at BRIC. Even though you don’t enjoy half-marathons you improved on your target pace for one. Looking good for being near the top of the nonathalon rankings and your Concept2 ones as well. If it doesn’t work to your satisfaction the first time you are soon back with a repeat. No rest for you on the water either.

Did you intend to loose 8.5kg weight or did that just happen? Either way it probably does have an impact on your performance.

I hope to be racing in Manchester – would be good to see you there. Best wishes for any of the other ergo competitions you take part in.


Carol well done for setting a new 60-64 women's lightweight record in 7:55.9 at BRIC and getting yourself a feature in the Rowing and Regatta magazine for this month. Still 6 years wait for me to be in the same race category and I wont be anywhere near that pace.


Richard Superb 6 x 500m r1 in November to shave some more of last years identical session and also flying along on the 6344m. Well done on your various workouts for C2CTC and 2k race preparation.


Rod brilliant new Lightweight PB in the 2k, and BRIC Gold in 2k in new championship time over 10 seconds ahead of 2nd place. Hope it goes well in Manchester and World championships too. It wouldnt be you without new PBs and new British Records at various distances in just a couple of months. Your meticulous training and fitness certainly pays off.


Mike great result on the 6344m under 24 minutes and I would have never realised that this could be measured as 13 x 488. You reached the 1200m in 4 mins too and a sub7 2k not that far behind Rod. It would be pleasing to hear that your work at different training intensities pays off. Good news that you have posted a 5k that is your best for a few years, and done the infamous AWL pyramid at a stroke rate and HR cap.


Me – trying to get in some serious work on various challenges, erg and otherwise. Currently on 2 ergo sessions a week and as such tend to be either TTs or pace predictors. Done 6550m for 30 mins 27spm (2:17.4) pace and 2k in 8:52.9 this month. First half of Jan should see an attempt at 8:45 for 2kTT and 2nd half of Jan at 8:40 in time for Manchester and St Austell, (race seems to be in a brewery! – 23 Feb). Current problems with leg drive, (DF over 100 feels very hard and I cannot budge the leg press at all just using right leg only – although not wanting the right hip replaced until at least 2020 if at all possible to wait that long). I have got to persevere with leg and glute strengthening and getting the nerves to talk to these muscles so that I can walk normally and faster, (currently about 25 mins to walk a mile feels like a real effort). PS Trying to set the bar high on the stairclimber – level 11 for 11 mins (52 floors) didn’t feel too bad so level 12 for 12 mins wont be far away, (trying to keep my HR under 160 as this is a machine that could run away with you if you get too tired and mis-step).

[Two Pudding Kid]

Happy New Year everyone.

Congratulations to Rod on adding another British Record and stunning PB to his collection on Saturday and hope that 2019 will be just as successful.

PS Hopefully have a 5k TT done before the gym closes today at 22:40 (2:16) pace. Maybe in another 3 hours time I will feel more like it as currently feeling stuffed from last nights beano and 61.4kg isn’t where I want to be, (over 1kg is due to solid metal replacing bone but still wanting to be a comfortable lightweight and not weighing in repeatedly like Manchester 2017 ).

[le grand fromage]

Congrats again Rod, serious run of form you're in, keep it going but not too much mate. With the Worlds a while away, hopefully timing 'a peak' for them is on your radar now

Hope everyone had a good Christmas, I haven't done anything meaning full since BRIC although I have managed to climb aboard the love trolley most days to do something to get rid of the booze and cakes.

Whilst I had a mediocre 30 minutes and 5k in the bank for the CTC and IRL, for some reason I felt the urge today to put myself through a bit of pain and see what I could do for a 5kTT. No pace plan just my normal fast start and figured something to bring me home somewhere around 17:15 would be acceptable. Nailed 17:09.8

FWIW that's 9.3 secs off the WR so pretty happy with that following Xmas, no training and a 5 minute warm up. On that basis I'll probably have a crack at a few WR next year

Happy New Year all, hope you get what you train for next year

Scores on the doors

5kTT - 17:09.8 - 1:42.9 - 28 - 320

Splits
1:40.7 - 30 - 342
1:44.1 - 28 - 310
1:44.1 - 27 - 310
1:44.1 - 27 - 310
1:41.7 - 28 - 333

[Two Pudding Kid]

Richard - stunning 5k TT today. Even better if you can verify that 17:09. Perhaps a rest is good for you

Me - 5k rather overshadowed by the above. Matched the stroke rate but approx half the power. Target 22:40 but result 22:45, (was trying to turn 2:16.5 into 2:16.0 pace but just could find the go in me to do it). Next time I probably wont have done a glutes session beforehand and certainly not still be feeling stuffed. The only good thing about it was consistency - 4:32.7 to 4:33.3 splits for each 1k.

Happy New Year everyone.

[Amazing Amazon]

Just 'first footing' on this thread to wish you all a happy and successful 2019. I expect to see some of you soon in either Manchester or Long Beach.

Well done everyone on decent 5k's and very well done Rod on his 30 minute PB/BR.

I've been mostly spending my time sculling on water since Christmas, making the most of the still conditions: I was out in a double on boxing day and Friday (Friday was very cold but Brian (our 81 yo) and I did the full 9k circuit of the estuary nevertheless). On Saturday we had some within-club fun races: we were racing 3 doubles and a coxed four and the course was about 700m; I was on the bank time keeping for the first race; in a double at stroke for the second race and in the bow of a different double for the third race; my first race was something of a disaster, our rowing just didn't gel despite Gordon having a very strong stroke and we trailed in last. In the third race Adam (who is a lightweight) and I won - passing the four in the last 100m with a very strong drive to the line, so maybe my sculling isn't that bad.

New Year's Eve I did get back on the ergo to attempt to improve my December 12th 20:44.8 5k time for the IRL (and to try and shed some of the weight I'd been putting back on over the Christmas festivities ). Was on target pace for the first 2,300m, then lost it for a few seconds so had to struggle to re-establish something like target pace. However with a bit of a sprint at the end was still able to squeeze out a sub 21-minute time. Without the almost-HD I still think I should be able to improve on my SB so will just have to go again soon.

1k splits pace (spm): 2:05.0 (28), 2:05.1 (29), 2:08.9 (27), 2:06.5 (28), ,2:03.0 (30) for 20:57.5 overall.

Today I was back on the estuary in a single scull.

[MPx]

....and a Happy New Year to you all from me too!

Wowser Rod - another BR and an all time PB. Fantastic! Amazing to me to think of going sub 1:50 for 30 mins. Inspirational to see a new all time PB coming at our age. You are obviously training harder than ever, but its certainly paying off.

Incredible 1063 points on one event Marjorie shows that that HM was quite exceptional. 9197 is an awful lot of points over 9 events. You might still sneak the win if you could be bothered to paddle an FM for the bonus 100! Congrats on the full house over 1000 points anyway. Amazing indeed!

Good to hear you're still working hard on the rehab Susan. Those 2k targets sound good ... but slightly worrying on the leg press - you'll need to keep working on that to get the leg strength evened out across left and right at whatever level otherwise it'll likely cause further probs down the road. The body seems all too ready to adapt to cover a weakness, but it always puts the strain somewhere else where it shouldn't!

Loving that 5k Richard. Within 0.5 sec pace of the WR must be very gratifying and when you do it, you'll bag a sub 17 5k which is yet another hugely impressive milestone. I'll look forward to reading about that on here....

[MPx]

Christmas and New Year for us was a proper treat of feasts - lovely! Managed not to miss too many days training but inevitably missed some. The big news from me was that I finally bought my new Erg (D/5) for Christmas and used it for the first time tonight. I bought my old ModelC in 1997 with a PM2. Replaced the 2 with a 2+ about 5 years later so that I could connect it to my laptop and then went from the 2+ to a 3 about 5 years after that when the 2+ packed up. Its also had two model D handles but otherwise is the same bit of kit that was delivered to me nearly 22 years ago. I also just racked up a total of 14m meters at the end of the year. Not much for such a long period, but for various reasons I did have about 8 of the 22 years inactive and in a further 3 years I rowed in a gym at work and not at home so the old horse has only done 10 to 12m meters service.

The new erg is wonderfully smooth and I got a real buzz using it tonight. The model C (which I have kept clean!) only registers a DF of 188 on lever 10 whereas the new D registers 226. Not usually of any significance since I typically erg at about DF145 (which I recognise is higher than many) but I thought that would make a big difference for the shortest sprints. So I first tried a 100m. Despite failing to keep the stroke rate high enough, I still managed a 16.6 second blast which is a lifetime PB by all of 0.1s. Then I went for the 1min piece for the IRL. I've been targetting 350m for some years, but only ever managed a 350m once in 2011 and 351m once in 2012. The extra DF made all the difference and I managed a 354m run despite dying badly at the end - another lifetime best. Great start and inspired by Rod setting a lifetime PB at the 5k. Hopefully my new training programme and new erg will take me closer to some more PBs in my weaker distances beyond 2k - 2019 could be an exciting year on the erg!

Other scores on the doors:
23/12 Dumbbells and 8k @ 20spm HR <140 in 32:32.2
24/12 This was the day I used to psych myself up for the Sub7 HM but let myself off with a more modest 1hr. Its another distance I never do - far too long for me...but I want a decent score for the Nonathlon so targetted 2:00m pace. Managed 15185 @ 1:58.5 so happy enough with that.
28/12 Dumbbells and 8k @ 20spm HR <140 in 32:59.3
29/12 AWL Pyramid trying to keep all reps below 1:50. Did the first 10 but then missed 3 before getting back on pace. Still 1:49.7 overall so pleased.
30/12 5x2k r2. Target steady 2:02 pace @ 20spm. Managed 4x 8:08.0 but the second was 8:08.1 - so near !!
31/12 Dumbbells and 8k @ 20spm HR <140 in 32:42.1
2/1 100m in 16.6s and 354m in 1 Min.

[Rod]

16 x 250. 2'r

Average pace..............1:36.0
SPM.........................39
DF............................125

All static starts

Faster than last week by 2.2 seconds on average pace and 1.1 faster than this time last year so power and pace improving nicely.

Richard.....great 5k, well done....that WR will be yours soon no problem!

Marjorie....excellent Nonathlon scores...that's me down one place.

Susan.......good to see you're getting better all the time, you'll be good as new in no time.

Mike........terrific 100m and one minute scores so big congrats, I've got my minute to do yet so will chase hard but don't think I'll get to that!

[Amazing Amazon]

Rod - stonking set of sprint reps there. The holiday break has clearly not slowed you down.

Mike - glad to see you're enjoying your shiny new ergo, and using it to get improved results.
Did you do the IRL 1 minute on maximum resistance as well as the 100m?

I had a go myself at the 1 minute yesterday and experimentally put the resistance up to 165 and improved my 10th November attempt of 183m (1:46.0 pace at 135 df) to 189m (1:43.8 pace) and was happy with that until I checked back on the PM5 and saw that previously I has done 192m in both Jan 2018 and Jan 2017 and 194m in Jan 2016 . The good news is that unlike yourself I was still rowing at full power at the end, so should still be good to improve on that.

Today I was out in one of our coastal 4+ sculls on the river. One of my oarlocks kept snagging when I feathered so ended up having to square blade the whole session. When we started at 9am it was about 1degC, albeit a bit warmer by the time we finished.

[Amazing Amazon]

Duh, must be getting old, wrote:

had a go myself at the 1 minute yesterday and experimentally put the resistance up to 165 and improved my 10th November attempt of 183m (1:46.0 pace at 135 df) to 189m (1:43.8 pace) and was happy with that until I checked back on the PM5 and saw that previously I has done 192m in both Jan 2018 and Jan 2017 and 194m in Jan 2016.

of course that should have read:
"had a go myself at the 1 minute yesterday and experimentally put the resistance up to 165 and improved my 10th November attempt of 283m (1:46.0 pace at 135 df) to 289m (1:43.8 pace) and was happy with that until I checked back on the PM5 and saw that previously I has done 292m in both Jan 2018 and Jan 2017 and 294m in Jan 2016"

[Rod]

8 x 500.3':30''R (All static starts)

Average pace..............1:39.8
SPM.........................37
DF...........................120

Big improvement over last time I did this one which was a year ago.

0.7 seconds on average pace faster (with a stroke rate 2 spm lower!)... and really pleased to have got it under 1:40.0 pace on all 8 reps

.Felt controlled throughout and no need for an all out thrash on the last one.

[MPx]

There was obviously something wrong with the scores Marjorie....but I didn't spot the straight 100 off pattern! Nicely done albeit 1 or 2 m off satisfaction! I did do my minute at max DF (226) since you asked. Its the only way I can get the strokes down into the low 1:20s or even below - presumably due to something not right with my form. With my normal DF145 I'm mid to high 1:20s at best.

Nice going on the 250s Rod. I do that session off 90sec rests and only very occasionally get level 1:36s like that! And very strong on the 8x500s - big milestone to get all under 1:40. Great stuff

While I'm on....I did:
3/1 Dumbbells and 8k @20 spm HR cap <140 for 32:42.3
5/1 10kTT for the Sub7 ITC. Set off too fast to try to get sub 38:30. Forced to slow second half and ended up 38:34.8. Bit disappointed but that's daft really as its still a season best so I should be chuffed!

[Two Pudding Kid]

Marjorie – glad the weather has been very suitable for you to enjoy OTW this time of year. Good going on the New Years Eve ergo 5k. Wonderful 1 minute 289m.

Mike – hope your new erg gives you as many years of service as your Model C. It reminds me of my mate Charles who had his Model C for about 14 years – not sure how many millions of metres we clocked up on it but many a mad evening was spent doing the various challenges, (and a perfect spot for the long stuff that would have not been possible in the gym). Didn’t have to replace much – as I bought the bits I only remember 1 shockcord, some seat rollers and a model D handle, although the monitor was giving up at the end.
Well done indeed on your new lifetime bests at 100m and 1 minute. Great 1 Hour result on New Years Eve and SB at 10k, and very close to your targets for AWL pyramid and 5 x 2k r2.

Rod Well done on the improvement for the 16 x 250 r2 and achieving sub 1:40 throughout the 8 x 500 r3:30.

Me- trying to go to the gym 4 times a week

Jan 2 - treadmill walks, new PB on stairclimber of 12 minutes level 12 which was 61 floors, beginning to see movement on leg press
Jan 4 - 6 x 500 r2 at 2:10.7 ave SPM 29 DF 104 and increasing pace, (pace predictor sub 8:45 for this Weds 2k), manic minute 237m (didnt up the DF as I am finding it hard to drive against resistance). Practising standup/sitdown with 10kg on shoulders and 4 x 10 at 15kg on shoulder press. Leg press better - can do it from sitting closer at 5kg. Killer session.
Jan 6 - Legs Bums and Tums (30 mins), 5.5kph for 1300m walk 1% incline, 4kph for 400m walk 5% incline, 3 sets of 15 at 20kg benchpress, 20 mins ergo at 20spm (2:27.9ave) 4056m DF 102. More legpress.

[Amazing Amazon]

Susan - looks like everything is starting to get back to normal (end of the beginning anyway). Best wishes for a strong result in your 2k on Wednesday.

Rod- do you never stop improving

Mike - nothing wrong with that 10k. Very sensible to back off from a slightly too ambitious pace. As to my incredible 1063 points for the HM: it was the fastest HM I've done since December 2014 (when I was 3.5 seconds faster); those were the days when I could still do 7:48.9 for the 2k . However I still think the Nonathlon scoring is very generous to me.

I had a go at the CTC 20R20 today. This is one, like when I do 'odd' intervals, where I have little idea what is a sustainable pace, with the result that I found my starting pace was just too conservative. I was also hampered initially by my 'normal' low spm being 18 (used quite a lot in my warm up) not 20. A very different feel to normal fast rowing.

So, 4 minute split pace (spm): 2:11.5 (19), 2:09.9 (20), 2:09.1 (20), 2:07.9 (20), 2:05.9 (21) for an overall 2655m at 20 spm.

[MPx]

.... 4 minute split pace (spm): 2:11.5 (19), 2:09.9 (20), 2:09.1 (20), 2:07.9 (20), 2:05.9 (21) for an overall 2655m at 20 spm.

Hmmmm, for today's typo I'm guessing its a straight 2 for 4 swap and you meant 4655m?? Do I get the prize? Nice going by the way!

And great to hear of the continued improvement Susan. Seems like you really are getting stuck back in and getting to quite a steep part of of the recovery curve. Good to read that the pressing is starting to work.

Latest from me:
6/1 Dumbbells and 8k @20spm HR cap <140 for 32:42.0
7/1 Also tried the CTC 20@20. Started off at 1:54 expecting to have to slow, but actually managed to pretty much keep pace for a 1:54.1 avg (according to Ergdata - although the CTC says 1:54.2) and exactly 400 strokes to cover 5256m.