Forum Flyers

[meerkats]

I am thinking about posting a 500m time this week for the spring challange but must say I am not looking forward to it
Did one last week for the FMMC and was nauseous for at least a full hour afterwards.....

Anybody have any tips?

I don't think that there are any magic tips to take away the pain but you must have really gone for it to feel that bad for so long afterwards - what time did you do, what was your stroke rate and how did the splits look?

Meters - time - split - rate
100 - 17.2 - 1:26.0 - 38
200 - 16.8 - 1:24.0 - 39
300 - 17.1 - 1:25.5 - 35
400 - 17.2 - 1:26.0 - 38
500 - 17.5 - 1:27.5 - 41

So total time was 1:25.7 at R38

don't know if I am able to go as deep as I did last week but I can pull a time under 1:30 any day of the week

I'd say loins were girded there

[Johnny S]

It's great that some of the old faces are back (Chris & Andrew), it coincides nicely with me trying to get back into rowing. Changed the batteries in my heart rate sensor so managed to track my 4 x 2500m, 90s rest = 18 spm @ 126 bpm. Completed 100km in the last month so happy with the volume.

[Slothful1]

Cracking time there, Ronald! And I was pleasantly surprised to see 4 entries already loaded (excluding that one). Nice work everyone! I had a couple too many beers this evening celebrating my mother-in-law's 80th with a home dinner seeing no restaurants are operating. So lost some motivation to put in the planned 500m effort. And reading all the other posts hasn't made me keen to get down and do it later this week either!

Dave

[rtbrouwer]

Cracking time there, Ronald! And I was pleasantly surprised to see 4 entries already loaded (excluding that one).

Dave

That's because I did the 500m last week. So I can't enter it for this weeks competition . Will have another go this week.

[Slothful1]

Ah! At least you have a good sighter laid down, so we're expecting bigger and better things now that you know your pacing .

Dave

[jackarabit]

[jackarabit]

[Slothful1]

Nice work, Jack! I couldn't bring myself to commit to the April Fools challenge, so kudos to you for powering through that one. And clearly helped you put in a strong World Erg Challenge run too.

We're heading close to 5.5m metres for the challenge, which is a full 800k ahead of last year's effort (our previous best). Great team effort all around, well done everyone, and especially the people with the big, big numbers!

Dave

[ivan141]

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipP ... hzSjgtd3dn

Never again...

Jack, I feel like I should buy you a beer after the challenge you layed at my feet after the weekend.. Had to pull 2 30k days to catch up again, I'm exhausted.
Funny how obsessive I can get when consigned to stay at home, I even dubbed the last 2 days wabbit season.
Fully expecting you to drop the bomb and enter some extra meters today.

Also big respect for Martins massive amount of meters this challenge, very impressive.

Now on to pull 500m the spring 8s once my legs feel well again.

[MartinSH4321]

Thank you Ivan, great to see how Jack and you pushed each other to more and more meters!

Did the 500m on Monday, but half hearted with bad preparation, slowed down after about 250m and the last 100m really slow. All the UT2 meters I did recently made me a bit soft, the result of 1:22.7 is OK but a good bit away from a strong effort.

Good luck everyone for the challenge!

[rtbrouwer]

Did the 500m on Monday, but half hearted with bad preparation, slowed down after about 250m and the last 100m really slow. All the UT2 meters I did recently made me a bit soft, the result of 1:22.7 is OK but a good bit away from a strong effort.

Good luck everyone for the challenge!

Wow! that's a really strong effort! What drag factor do you use for these max effort sprints? I did some testing today with some short max effort sprints at different drag factors to see what gave me the best splits.
DF Split
82 1:25
99 1:21
118 1:19
129 1:18
165 1:18
209 1:16

So for me it seems I can generate the most power at a high drag factor. I think the problem is that I can't sustain that effort for 90 seconds so I am probably best of at somwhere between 129 and 165. What are your thoughts?

[MartinSH4321]

Did the 500m on Monday, but half hearted with bad preparation, slowed down after about 250m and the last 100m really slow. All the UT2 meters I did recently made me a bit soft, the result of 1:22.7 is OK but a good bit away from a strong effort.

Good luck everyone for the challenge!

Wow! that's a really strong effort! What drag factor do you use for these max effort sprints? I did some testing today with some short max effort sprints at different drag factors to see what gave me the best splits.
DF Split
82 1:25
99 1:21
118 1:19
129 1:18
165 1:18
209 1:16

So for me it seems I can generate the most power at a high drag factor. I think the problem is that I can't sustain that effort for 90 seconds so I am probably best of at somwhere between 129 and 165. What are your thoughts?

Thanks, I did it with 165 which was lower than normal (180), it didn't work for me and I'll do 180 again next time.

The right drag is a personal thing, most people use a lower drag than me, even the very strong sprinters. You're right, it's easier to get lower splits with higher drag but it's hard to sustain it.
I would recommend to use around 150 and see how that feels.
Many people use the "fly and die" strategy to get the best result. The plan is to start very fast (the first 5-7 strokes close to max), then find a pace you can hold till around 300m and then try to get the last 200m as good as possible.
The problem with this strategy is: without experience it's hard to say what pace is OK for these 300m, when you're too fast you may hit the wall and the last meters are so slow that your overall pace is too slow.

How many 500m TTs have you done so far? And what pacing strategy did you use?

[Dangerscouse]

Thank you Ivan, great to see how Jack and you pushed each other to more and more meters!

Did the 500m on Monday, but half hearted with bad preparation, slowed down after about 250m and the last 100m really slow. All the UT2 meters I did recently made me a bit soft, the result of 1:22.7 is OK but a good bit away from a strong effort.

Good luck everyone for the challenge!

1:22.7?!?! That's very strong imo. I'm going to give it a go tomorrow I think

[rtbrouwer]

How many 500m TTs have you done so far? And what pacing strategy did you use?

I have done 2 serious attempts:
One in 2018 when I PR'd at 1:24.7
One last week at 1:25.7

On both occasions the pacing was pretty simular. First 100m I have get the flywheel going so on both attempts it was exactly 1:26. Second 200m is the fastest at around 1:24 and from there the split crawls slowly up to about 1:27 for the last 100m. Fastest split I've seen on both attempts was 1:21.

I was thinking about having a go at an all out sprint in de first 150m and try to hit that 1:16 split and see where I go from there. But I think that won't work because after a 100% sprint effort even 350m will feel a long long way after that. Maybe I'll aim for something in the middle, try hitting sub 1:20 in the first 100m to get the pace going and then drop straight to 1:25 and see how long I can hold that.

[ivan141]

I cant touch either a 1:22 or a 1:25 500m but my strategy of choice is to come out of the gate at full power for approx. 100m, then
immediately drop to a flat & sustainable split for the middle 250, and then finish off with a strong final push from anywhere between 100 and 200 to go, depending on how good I'm feeling about my ability. I like to count down the remaining strokes, this makes it easier to dig deep despite the discomfort/pain (name it what you want). I certainly don't enjoy blowing up and limping across the line at a limp home pace, that just reeks of bad preparation / lack of control.