The 100K

[Dangerscouse]

Mission accomplished: https://log.concept2.com/profile/973347/log/44419657

Based on that 15+50k dress rehearsal last week, I felt confident going for a sub-7 target and didn’t expect to suffer too much besides butt ache. It felt like an appealing round target, not least because seven also happens to be the most widely accepted target figure on the benchmark distance Besides, the wattage at face value doesn’t seem all that demanding, just about 176. How hard can it be?

Turns out I was quite overconfident and it became one of the hardest pieces I’ve done on the rower.

Strangely, my heart rate was unusually high from the start and drifted wildly towards the end, although the pace was quite stable. Average hr for the 7 hours was in fact 168 on a maximum of about 190, so in that sense it was like a race effort, although I was supposedly comfortably within the aerobic realm. Why?

Maybe I was a little tired from working too much and sleeping too little this week, and not 100% recovered from that rehearsal row 6 days ago. Especially my hip extensors started to ache at just about one hour into the row. There were also some technical mistakes made during the row that unnecessarily added the discomfort and potentially the heart rate:

First, I realised pretty fast I had forgotten to spread vaseline onto my bare lats and arms, so when it began to chafe I had to stop and do it. Unfortunately, I was too hasty and didn’t wipe my hands clean, so they began to slip and caused massive blisters on my fingers.

Second, I started to feel the urge to take a leak already within the first hour, but I wanted to put it off a couple of hours so I wouldn’t have to go more than once. As a result, I probably didn’t drink enough and got a little dehydrated. And when I finally went at about 3 hours, I ended up wasting about 1,5 minutes, and got dropped behind the target pace.

Then I began to stress about making up for the lost time and avoided drinking and eating enough because those breaks, even if only couple of seconds, add up and make it hard to catch up on the average split or wattage.

Thirdly, had quite a bit of caffeine before and during the row from an energy drink mix, gels and Coke (almost a gram in total), which may also have some role in raising the heart, who knows? And finally, I rowed in my basement gym with a single fan at about 22C. If I had the choice, I’d prefer way cooler. Like on the patio on a cool day. I’m sure that’s even more important in these long-distance efforts when humidity and heat have more time to accumulate.

Fortunately I got help especially in the second half from my spouse who brought me cold drinks and food to minimise the breaks and save precious seconds. She even put ice inside a ski hat in an attempt to cool me down when I felt I was overheating I doubt I would have managed to hold the target splits today without the assistance, and if I’d seen the target slip beoynd reach I might have lost the motivation to finish altogether.

As for entertainment, I watched Billions from HBO for the first five hours and switched to a metal playlist for the remainder when it started to feel physically harder.

On a positive note, I got away with surprisingly minor butt discomfort. Mostly just some beginning numbness in the last hour, when the mental struggle was already won. I had a hand towel folded twice and did not add more cushioning at any time, although I was prepared with a C2 pad with extra bubble wrap. Also, even though the the hip extensor pain developed early on, it did not get too bad at any stage. In fact I sort of forgot about it and only noticed it again after the row when it was difficult to walk for a while.

As for nutrition and hydration, I mainly relied on ice-cold sports drink with added isomaltulose and bcaa, starting with about 1,5 dl swigs every 20 mins or so. Towards the end, that got a little nauseating, so I had just water with energy gels, and Coke. I also had a protein bar and a Lion chocolate candy bar and some orange and banana bits. That felt about right, although I probably should have drank a little more.

All in all, it was a surprisingly hard row, but I feel fulfilment getting it done, especially in my target time, so I don’t have to try again. Right now it feels unlikely I could muster up the motivation to try and squeeze out a few minutes for a new PB or go for even longer rows. Never say never though.

That is an exceptionally brilliant result. Sub 7 is a massive effort and I love the write up. You really should be very proud of this.

100k is a totally different beast than any other and I find my HR is raised when i know I'm doing a longer distance and it's not just a long distance for training purposes e.g. my HR for my recent FM was elevated from the start despite having done the same pace at circa 5 or 6bpm less for a shorter distance.

[Dangerscouse]

You need to post this on the PB thread so it gets the attention it deserves.

[Dino]

You need to post this on the PB thread so it gets the attention it deserves.

Ditto!!!
This is a HUGE effort. I thought that jbhop5857's 7h29m was amazing but this is another leap.
Great write up too. This is serious endurance athlete territory plus from your frustrations at a few items sounds like could be a bit more there too if you fancied doing it again in the future.

[MartinSH4321]

Mission accomplished: https://log.concept2.com/profile/973347/log/44419657

Based on that 15+50k dress rehearsal last week, I felt confident going for a sub-7 target and didn’t expect to suffer too much besides butt ache. It felt like an appealing round target, not least because seven also happens to be the most widely accepted target figure on the benchmark distance Besides, the wattage at face value doesn’t seem all that demanding, just about 176. How hard can it be?

Turns out I was quite overconfident and it became one of the hardest pieces I’ve done on the rower.

Strangely, my heart rate was unusually high from the start and drifted wildly towards the end, although the pace was quite stable. Average hr for the 7 hours was in fact 168 on a maximum of about 190, so in that sense it was like a race effort, although I was supposedly comfortably within the aerobic realm. Why?

Maybe I was a little tired from working too much and sleeping too little this week, and not 100% recovered from that rehearsal row 6 days ago. Especially my hip extensors started to ache at just about one hour into the row. There were also some technical mistakes made during the row that unnecessarily added the discomfort and potentially the heart rate:

First, I realised pretty fast I had forgotten to spread vaseline onto my bare lats and arms, so when it began to chafe I had to stop and do it. Unfortunately, I was too hasty and didn’t wipe my hands clean, so they began to slip and caused massive blisters on my fingers.

Second, I started to feel the urge to take a leak already within the first hour, but I wanted to put it off a couple of hours so I wouldn’t have to go more than once. As a result, I probably didn’t drink enough and got a little dehydrated. And when I finally went at about 3 hours, I ended up wasting about 1,5 minutes, and got dropped behind the target pace.

Then I began to stress about making up for the lost time and avoided drinking and eating enough because those breaks, even if only couple of seconds, add up and make it hard to catch up on the average split or wattage.

Thirdly, had quite a bit of caffeine before and during the row from an energy drink mix, gels and Coke (almost a gram in total), which may also have some role in raising the heart, who knows? And finally, I rowed in my basement gym with a single fan at about 22C. If I had the choice, I’d prefer way cooler. Like on the patio on a cool day. I’m sure that’s even more important in these long-distance efforts when humidity and heat have more time to accumulate.

Fortunately I got help especially in the second half from my spouse who brought me cold drinks and food to minimise the breaks and save precious seconds. She even put ice inside a ski hat in an attempt to cool me down when I felt I was overheating I doubt I would have managed to hold the target splits today without the assistance, and if I’d seen the target slip beoynd reach I might have lost the motivation to finish altogether.

As for entertainment, I watched Billions from HBO for the first five hours and switched to a metal playlist for the remainder when it started to feel physically harder.

On a positive note, I got away with surprisingly minor butt discomfort. Mostly just some beginning numbness in the last hour, when the mental struggle was already won. I had a hand towel folded twice and did not add more cushioning at any time, although I was prepared with a C2 pad with extra bubble wrap. Also, even though the the hip extensor pain developed early on, it did not get too bad at any stage. In fact I sort of forgot about it and only noticed it again after the row when it was difficult to walk for a while.

As for nutrition and hydration, I mainly relied on ice-cold sports drink with added isomaltulose and bcaa, starting with about 1,5 dl swigs every 20 mins or so. Towards the end, that got a little nauseating, so I had just water with energy gels, and Coke. I also had a protein bar and a Lion chocolate candy bar and some orange and banana bits. That felt about right, although I probably should have drank a little more.

All in all, it was a surprisingly hard row, but I feel fulfilment getting it done, especially in my target time, so I don’t have to try again. Right now it feels unlikely I could muster up the motivation to try and squeeze out a few minutes for a new PB or go for even longer rows. Never say never though.

Well done Ilkka, that's an outstanding effort!

@ HR: 168 was the HR at the finish, your AHR was much lower, looking at the graph I would estimate in the low/middle 150's

[winniewinser]

Mission accomplished: https://log.concept2.com/profile/973347/log/44419657

Based on that 15+50k dress rehearsal last week, I felt confident going for a sub-7 target and didn’t expect to suffer too much besides butt ache. It felt like an appealing round target, not least because seven also happens to be the most widely accepted target figure on the benchmark distance Besides, the wattage at face value doesn’t seem all that demanding, just about 176. How hard can it be?

Turns out I was quite overconfident and it became one of the hardest pieces I’ve done on the rower.

Strangely, my heart rate was unusually high from the start and drifted wildly towards the end, although the pace was quite stable. Average hr for the 7 hours was in fact 168 on a maximum of about 190, so in that sense it was like a race effort, although I was supposedly comfortably within the aerobic realm. Why?

Maybe I was a little tired from working too much and sleeping too little this week, and not 100% recovered from that rehearsal row 6 days ago. Especially my hip extensors started to ache at just about one hour into the row. There were also some technical mistakes made during the row that unnecessarily added the discomfort and potentially the heart rate:

First, I realised pretty fast I had forgotten to spread vaseline onto my bare lats and arms, so when it began to chafe I had to stop and do it. Unfortunately, I was too hasty and didn’t wipe my hands clean, so they began to slip and caused massive blisters on my fingers.

Second, I started to feel the urge to take a leak already within the first hour, but I wanted to put it off a couple of hours so I wouldn’t have to go more than once. As a result, I probably didn’t drink enough and got a little dehydrated. And when I finally went at about 3 hours, I ended up wasting about 1,5 minutes, and got dropped behind the target pace.

Then I began to stress about making up for the lost time and avoided drinking and eating enough because those breaks, even if only couple of seconds, add up and make it hard to catch up on the average split or wattage.

Thirdly, had quite a bit of caffeine before and during the row from an energy drink mix, gels and Coke (almost a gram in total), which may also have some role in raising the heart, who knows? And finally, I rowed in my basement gym with a single fan at about 22C. If I had the choice, I’d prefer way cooler. Like on the patio on a cool day. I’m sure that’s even more important in these long-distance efforts when humidity and heat have more time to accumulate.

Fortunately I got help especially in the second half from my spouse who brought me cold drinks and food to minimise the breaks and save precious seconds. She even put ice inside a ski hat in an attempt to cool me down when I felt I was overheating I doubt I would have managed to hold the target splits today without the assistance, and if I’d seen the target slip beoynd reach I might have lost the motivation to finish altogether.

As for entertainment, I watched Billions from HBO for the first five hours and switched to a metal playlist for the remainder when it started to feel physically harder.

On a positive note, I got away with surprisingly minor butt discomfort. Mostly just some beginning numbness in the last hour, when the mental struggle was already won. I had a hand towel folded twice and did not add more cushioning at any time, although I was prepared with a C2 pad with extra bubble wrap. Also, even though the the hip extensor pain developed early on, it did not get too bad at any stage. In fact I sort of forgot about it and only noticed it again after the row when it was difficult to walk for a while.

As for nutrition and hydration, I mainly relied on ice-cold sports drink with added isomaltulose and bcaa, starting with about 1,5 dl swigs every 20 mins or so. Towards the end, that got a little nauseating, so I had just water with energy gels, and Coke. I also had a protein bar and a Lion chocolate candy bar and some orange and banana bits. That felt about right, although I probably should have drank a little more.

All in all, it was a surprisingly hard row, but I feel fulfilment getting it done, especially in my target time, so I don’t have to try again. Right now it feels unlikely I could muster up the motivation to try and squeeze out a few minutes for a new PB or go for even longer rows. Never say never though.

Well done that is some effort....and definitely not something I want to take on.

[Huopaaja]

Thanks everyone

@ HR: 168 was the HR at the finish, your AHR was much lower, looking at the graph I would estimate in the low/middle 150's

Thanks, that makes sense. Strava and Garmin Connect had my peak hr at 174 and average at 168, although it does not look that way in the graph, where the first hour was in the 140s and thereafter quite a while in the low 150s, before rising to the 160-170s for the last 2 hours. I guess these 3rd party apps are confused by the interval-end hr apparently shown by c2, and after all, this was a just one 100000m interval (no idea where that ghost interval of 34464m on my pm5 screen came from; luckily it did not prevent this from being rankable). In fact I was suspecting 168 could have been the hr for that 34,5km, if it were from the end.

[Dangerscouse]

Thanks everyone

@ HR: 168 was the HR at the finish, your AHR was much lower, looking at the graph I would estimate in the low/middle 150's

Thanks, that makes sense. Strava and Garmin Connect had my peak hr at 174 and average at 168, although it does not look that way in the graph, where the first hour was in the 140s and thereafter quite a while in the low 150s, before rising to the 160-170s for the last 2 hours. I guess these 3rd party apps are confused by the interval-end hr apparently shown by c2, and after all, this was a just one 100000m interval (no idea where that ghost interval of 34464m on my pm5 screen came from; luckily it did not prevent this from being rankable). In fact I was suspecting 168 could have been the hr for that 34,5km, if it were from the end.

I have no idea why but it does seem to pull up a random distance as a separate interval.

If you do it again, you can programme in 100k using the Ergzone app, which let's you split it into any intervals that you like eg 10 x 10k or 8 x 12.5k

[ArmchairPhil]

Huopajja and MartinSH 4321
Congratulations both on tremendous achievements and enlightening posts

Phil

[ArmchairPhil]

Whoops and the OP Lance great post, inspirational

[lancecampeau]

You need to post this on the PB thread so it gets the attention it deserves.

Absolutely!! I spotted your piece on the leader-board and was really impressed with the chart (so few breaks!), its great to hear the backstory.