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[lindsayh]

Georgie has sent me a message that matches Mikes on sub7 - if you are doing the IRL and cant get the 10k done in time then send to him and he will allow it

The competition will move on as planned to the April challenge on April, 1st Noon GMT.
If you were not able to row the March challenge and do it in April, please submit your results in a private message to me or send me an e-mail at news@indoorrowers.org.
I will take those results in account.
I wish you all the best!"

It looks like we might have some takers for September when the IRL gets going again - watch this space

[Slothful1]

I saw Ewen on top of the team board last night, so well done for a top effort on the 100km yesterday. 7h35-ish if I remember correctly. I'm getting a headache even imagining that effort!

I managed to get a 10km in last night. The target was to improve on my 40+ PB set a year ago, but I wasn't sure if the BikeErg work was going to compensate enough for the limited amount of rowing time.

In the end I knocked about 7 seconds off to put in a 43:42.7 for the IRL / FMMC. Held it steady at the target pace, but there was a slight drift down until about 1km to go when I started lifting it back to the right level, and then did a 200m sprint at the end. Still need to find an extra 19% watts to get to my all time PB, but still optimistic that this is doable before the age-related decline hits harder.

Dave

[macroth]

I saw Ewen on top of the team board last night, so well done for a top effort on the 100km yesterday. 7h35-ish if I remember correctly. I'm getting a headache even imagining that effort!

Something is still aching right now, but not my head
I'll recap my effort (top to bottom) a bit later, but having some online support was a huge factor in managing to cross the finish line, so thanks, everyone.

[ivan141]

Awesome effort Ewen! I cannot even imagine what 100k in a day must feel like.. Just did a 72k week and I'm already feeling the effects.
Anyone else using their time at home to get some meters in? I've got a healthy rivalry going on with jackarabbit for 3rd place in the WEC team standings so far.

[Slothful1]

The more metres the better. Great stuff, Ivan! And I know that Jack can crank out plenty of metres, so this will be a useful contest!

So far am still enjoying the novelty of working from home. On Friday evening I closed the laptop for the day, and noticed that there was a Zwift event starting in 30 minutes. Enough time to change and get warmed up, and got the training session over before supper for a change. Not that I normally have a long commute from work, but there just seems to be more effort involved normally when leaving the office.

We're going full lockdown in SA from Thursday midnight, with only trips to buy food and get medical help allowed. Probably will manage to get more sessions in over this time. Notionally I'm on 2 days leave at the end of this week, but not sure I will be able to tell the difference (other than ignoring work messages on my phone).

Dave

[lindsayh]

I am just starting to get used to the new normal - it doesn't suit me at all
lizh tho did the challenge today - all her dragon boat racing and training is cancelled for the foreseeable future.
managed ctc @2:21 which was steady and pretty good for her
there is now a boat 5 waiting with a lady in it just needing 2 blokes (an Aussie word for men) to float

[ivan141]

Not a fan of this months CTC to be honest.. did a 4x1k yesterday and felt dead inside afterwards.. now imagine doing it 2 minutes longer with less rest. Brrr.

[graycyn]

See Cynthia - you floated a boat! Well done to finish

Terry and I did the ctc tonite - a little concerned that our gym will close soon as part of the COVID response so wanted to get a score on the board
Mine was @1:50.7 and terry was @1:56.5 (he just pushed Rick out of boat 2 and surprised himself a bit too)

Thanks, Lindsay!

Things haven't been so good since. The day I visited the doctor, things seemed OK, even a nurse there said I was walking better. But that evening, pain hit and I was on crutches to get around. I don't even know why things flared up. Maybe the Rowing plus trying to doing a light resistance workout was too much in one day. But I was only around my usual Fitbit step goal for the day (4K steps).

In spite of the coronavirus, no relaxation about getting the winter tires off the cars, so we got up early yesterday, took mine over, hubby followed in his car, took me home. When mine was ready, he drove me back over, then I drove him home. We did need some things at Walmart, so made a brief trip there, walking around was a bit painful. So I haven't tried to row since before the doctor visit. Might try today, I really miss it. But if I do, will keep it to no more than 5 minutes.

My back is scaring me more than the blamed virus right now.

No chance of another CTC row I think. So I'm glad I got something up.

[graycyn]

OK, my back wasn't too bad this morning, not good either, still a fair amount of nerve pain in my right hip/butt, but I've been missing rowing and no activity isn't good for me either.

So, I have *a* CTC challenge done. It is not a very good one. I could tell that I should not push at all, so that was just slow steady rowing for 4 minutes, then walking around for 3 during the rest interval, then strapping back in and so on so forth.

Rowing was at the point it didn't feel good, but wasn't producing bad twinges either. So I think I'll do some light stuff, try again in a few. If nothing goes further south. If you want me to enter what I have, I can, but it's pretty bad....

FWIW, if you haven't already tried it Pilates has been the best thing I've found for dealing with back pains. Just the simple floor exercises that take about 15 minutes or so. For me they have worked almost like magic to bring me back from some severe back pains in a matter of days.

I have a book about back exercises, been kind of waiting for a break between flare-ups to try them, since getting down on the floor and back up is difficult, but maybe I just need to try regardless. Just so afraid I'll make things worse.

[graycyn]

Rowed! 800m.

Now to wait and see if it made anything worse. Still getting a fair amount of nerve pain walking around. Didn't seem worse on the rower though. I went slow and light and mostly 3/4 slide. Going full slide did seem to be a bit more aggravating to the right leg.

Walked no worse than usual after getting off.

I will not try another CTC for this month. Things still feel flared up and getting occasional sharp jolts when walking. Taking it easy while still trying to move some. Might make my Fitbit step goal today!

Hope everyone is well! Stay safe, times are scary.

[Slothful1]

Sounds rough over there, Cynthia, sorry to hear that. These types of issues are frustrating when there doesn't seem to be specific causes and effects to link together and solve.

About 10 years ago I did something to my lower back (probably trapped a sciatic nerve) from picking up a hefty baby from a low camping cot after scrubbing our pool walls for a couple of hours. I could sit OK, and lie down OK, but everything else caused intense pain, difficulty walking. I remember being able to do some light rowing at the time, because it was close to the sitting position that was OK. I have no medical background but I might have been easing the compression of the nerve with the different seating positions.

Probably unrelated to your issue, but just illustrates the difficulty of diagnosing these things without a specialist background.

You are totally excused from another CTC this month, and we appreciate that you did fit one in!

I've taken 2 days of leave off work to spend some time with the kids, which feels odd when you've been working at home for a week, and with more weeks ahead. It was still nice yesterday not to have to look at the phone, but I'm already getting pulled into 2 urgent meetings today, which I'm grumpy about. At least I'm prioritising a sleep-in, plus a BikeErg session before I do the meetings, so still feels like somewhat of a gain.

I hear you, Lindsay! Very strange getting into this new routine, but glad you have training options during this time. I've always trained at home, so feel fortunate not to be impacted while I'm still healthy.

Ivan - it wasn't as bad as I thought in the end, and I was also dreading the CTC this month. I did go in blind without having a tough 4x1km on my mind though, but any time that you can load will be appreciated.

Cheers
Dave

[ivan141]

Dave,

Maybe I'm expecting too much of myself.. could barely hold on to 1:47 splits for a 4x1K r6:00 where I really hoped to be doing better,
Perhaps the (for me) unusually high training load during 'quarantine' is hurting my high intensity work. Difficult to change that though, everytime I consider having a rest day Jack one-ups me in the WEC standings again and I cant have that.
That WEC should have categories per erg type.. once you figure out the bike-erg crowd is hitting those big numbers you cant help but feel a bit cheated (nearly twice the distance for the same power)..
Perhaps Ill give the CTC a cautious go in the weekend, but I'm not really sold on the prospect.

[MartinSH4321]

Dave,

Maybe I'm expecting too much of myself.. could barely hold on to 1:47 splits for a 4x1K r6:00 where I really hoped to be doing better,
Perhaps the (for me) unusually high training load during 'quarantine' is hurting my high intensity work. Difficult to change that though, everytime I consider having a rest day Jack one-ups me in the WEC standings again and I cant have that.
That WEC should have categories per erg type.. once you figure out the bike-erg crowd is hitting those big numbers you cant help but feel a bit cheated (nearly twice the distance for the same power)..
Perhaps Ill give the CTC a cautious go in the weekend, but I'm not really sold on the prospect.

Hi Ivan,
the bike-erg meters only count half for the challenges, so for the same power and time you get the same meters on rower, skierg and bikeerg.

[ivan141]

Martin, thats good to know. In that case I am well and truly baffled at the amount of distance some guys manage to cover..
The individual no1 has covered an average of 96km a day (!).

[jackarabit]

Dave,

Maybe I'm expecting too much of myself.. could barely hold on to 1:47 splits for a 4x1K r6:00 where I really hoped to be doing better,
Perhaps the (for me) unusually high training load during 'quarantine' is hurting my high intensity work. Difficult to change that though, everytime I consider having a rest day Jack one-ups me in the WEC standings again and I cant have that.
That WEC should have categories per erg type.. once you figure out the bike-erg crowd is hitting those big numbers you cant help but feel a bit cheated (nearly twice the distance for the same power)..
Perhaps Ill give the CTC a cautious go in the weekend, but I'm not really sold on the prospect.

Responses bottom to top:

CAUTION is the watchword of our days now! Submaximal execution is a cautious exploration of new surroundings in which pursuiter’s cough and immunosuppression gives the edge to Olde Fickle Sickle. Stay in the game.

I believe monkey bike meters are discounted by a factor of half as contribution to WEC meter totals.

Pay no attention to Jack. He gets his jollies from drafting on somebody's dailies, whether for 3rd place or 19th. You can get him off your wheel by uploading your challenge meters at random intervals.

The inverse law of volume/intensity never goes away. To everything there is a season, and a purpose, and a repurpose, a perversion and possibly a very personal synthesis.