Endurance erging - A place to discuss 42, 50, 100k upwards.

[HeraH]

Apologies if the text contains any spelling or grammar mistakes, as I do not master English and have used a translation software.
Hello,
From beginner to 100K.

My name is Hervé.
I hesitated for a long time before sharing my experience with you, as my testimony is only of interest if it brings something that hasn't already been posted. After reading all the pages, it seems that I can add something new.

A bit of personal context:
I am 51 years old, I’m 1.67m tall and weigh 74kg. I live in France, close to the Paris region. I’ve been commuting to work by bike for 2 years, riding 17km each way, 5 days a week.
I discovered rowing in July 2023 during my vacation at a campsite. I started rowing after my family gifted me a Concept2 rowing machine in December 2023. I take some pleasure in rowing, this back-and-forth motion, staying focused on the PM5 data, trying to go faster, further, longer. In short, rowing gives me a certain satisfaction.

At first, I did short sessions of a few kilometers, without any specific goal, based on how I felt and as a complement to cycling. At the end of January 2024, I woke up one morning wanting to complete a marathon.
It was January 27th, and I told my wife I would be making noise for a long time. She took the car and went shopping.
I was alone at home, just me and my PM5, with a few bottles of water next to me, and 2 or 3 energy bars for fuel. I had no particular goal, just to finish. The effort was long and tough. I discovered that rowing for a long time really hurts your butt. I took breaks to relieve the pain, drink, eat, deal with cramps, and handle the sweat dripping on the mat, the floor, soaking my clothes—a rain of sweat... lots of breaks, lots of discoveries, a lot of discomfort and pain. I remember stopping abruptly at one point to throw myself at a banana because I was so hungry. I finally managed to finish my marathon, and it made me very happy.
Marathon time: 3:28:20.0 (pace 2:28.1; avg HR 130; S/min 25; DF 111)

I kept rowing just for the pleasure of it, according to my mood, my fatigue from cycling, and by listening to my body to avoid injury. I made a few attempts to compare my performance with rowers from around the world (100m, 500m, 2K, 5K, 10K, 1min, 30min, and 1 hour). I also started doing interval training to prepare for the half-marathon, while being mindful of my fatigue and how I felt. I also began paying attention to heart rate and training zones, but nothing too structured.
On March 30th, I did my first half-marathon, aiming to do my best. I knew what to expect since I had rowed longer distances during my full marathon.
Result of the half-marathon: 1:31:03.4 (pace 2:09.4; avg HR 150; S/min 27; DF 217)
I think I gave it my all, considering my level of preparation at the time, and I’m still very proud and satisfied with my performance.

After my half-marathon, I quickly wanted to challenge myself with a 50K, aiming to finish under 4 hours. To prepare, I added weekend bike rides, walks in the woods, bodyweight exercises, and resistance band training, all to avoid getting mentally saturated from doing the same thing over and over. I also started reading the dedicated forum from the first post, discovering lots of valuable advice.
During April, May, and June, I tried to do longer sessions, increasing the distances. I did many 10Ks and 2 more half-marathons, among other things.
My concern for the 50K was managing the butt pain. I looked into adding extra foam on the seat, but it was too unstable. I checked out official products, but they were too expensive with no guarantee they would suit me. I tested with cycling shorts that have gel padding, and it provided slight relief on the distances I tried. To ease the pain, I planned to take short breaks to relax my rear.
As for hydration and food, I had plenty of water next to the rowing machine and energy bars, plus a hearty breakfast. Towels for the sweat were also prepared.
On Sunday, June 16th, I felt ready. I programmed the distance on the app and started my 4-hour effort. Very quickly, the pain set in, and the breaks were welcome: standing up, walking 10 steps, then resuming. I tried to stay focused on my pace to keep under the 4-hour mark. In the end, I had to take 7 breaks, lasting 15 to 30 seconds each, to cover the distance, drink, eat, and relieve the pain.
I finished my 50K in 3:59:07.8 (pace 2:23.4; avg HR 140; S/min 25; DF 119). What a feeling at the end—the rush of endorphins, the joy of finishing, of making it through. I noticed my hands were wrecked from being in damp gloves for 4 hours, like my skin had been soaking in a bath for hours. No issues with hydration (plenty of water). I don’t recall any food problems. The cycling shorts helped a bit with the butt pain, but once they were soaked, they were no longer effective.

The next day, I knew I wanted to try the 100K. Again, the experience gained from the 50K pushed me to better prepare in several areas :
• Plan regular breaks for food and practice eating and drinking while rowing.
• Prepare hand protection against moisture.
• More towels to absorb sweat under the rowing machine.
• Increase the length and duration of training sessions.
• Mentally prepare for the duration of the effort and pain management.
• Plan for 3 recovery days before the event.
• Focus on strength training, especially for the back and upper body.

My goal is to complete the 100K in under 8 hours. For that, I plan to row with a pace of 2:15:00, which gives a theoretical time of 7h30. The remaining 30 minutes will be used for breaks.
• To manage hand moisture, I plan to alternate between weightlifting gloves (2 pairs) and washcloth gloves (2 pairs). Pair of gloves 1, pair of washcloth gloves 1, pair of gloves 2, pair of washcloth gloves 2, back to pair of gloves 1, and so on, to allow each pair to dry during the event and avoid blisters.
• Four towels to absorb sweat and prevent a pool from forming under the rowing machine.
• Mentally, I used my cycling sessions to "validate" my ability to complete the 100K on the rowing machine. I did a first ride of 111km (4:48:26; 23.1 km/h; avg HR 127) on my bike to use as a "mental check," telling myself that if I could endure that distance on the bike, I could hold out on the rowing machine. I did a second cycling session of 8 hours to condition myself to endure 8 hours of intense effort (182.51 km; 8:00:23; 22.8 km/h; avg HR 126). This long ride also allowed me to test nutrition and hydration. I ate one energy bar every hour and drank 1 liter of water mixed with a specific powder for long-duration efforts (providing minerals and sugar). Based on the results, I decided to add bananas for the 100K and validated the hydration plan: 1 liter of water mixed with powder per hour.
After the 182 km bike ride, it was clear in my mind that I could attempt the 100K. I took 3 recovery days, only rowing 10K for 2 days and taking a short walk the day before. This allowed my body to recover, to mentally rest, and to recharge for the 100K.
• For hydration, I plan to drink every 15 minutes while continuing to row.
• For food, I plan to alternate between bananas and energy bars every half hour.
• Between June 17th and July 17th, I completed 17 cycling sessions, covering 941km in 41 hours and 4 minutes, and I rowed 18 times, covering a total of 219km, which took me 15 hours and 37 minutes.
• For pain management, I will take breaks every 10K to refill my bottle, add powder, change hand protection, and relieve my butt. During training, I noticed that discomfort usually started around the 10K mark, so I plan to use that distance as my benchmark.

It’s the big day, July 18th, 2024. I have a normal breakfast, I prepare my energy bars, bananas, 8 packets of powder, my 1-liter water bottle, towels gloves, and mittens. I make sure to use the restroom to empty everything possible to avoid an additional stop during the 100K.
I feel excited and apprehensive about the challenge ahead. I keep telling myself I can do it, that I’m capable. I program the distance on the app on my phone, I put on my heart rate monitor, and I prepare my watch. Sitting in front of the monitor, seeing the daunting 100K displayed, doubt starts to creep in : Why am I doing this? What does it prove? Nothing ! But I just want to do it, to be able to say, "I did it." I secure my feet, grab the handle, take a deep breath. The excitement builds, I hesitate—after the first stroke, there's no turning back ; I’ll have to go all the way. I push, I pull, and here we go.

The first 10K is easy, not as fast as I had anticipated, but the pace is good. First break, I add powder to the bottle, refill it with water, shake it up. I change hand protection. Back on the rower, estimated finish time 7h36.
At 20K, still going smoothly. I focus on the instant pace to try to maintain 2:15:00/500m, but I also listen to my body to avoid pushing too hard. It’s not a sprint. 20% of the distance is done. Break, powder, water, hand protection change. Estimated finish time 7h44.
At 30K, I’m nearly one-third of the way through, and I still feel good. Break, water, hands, estimated finish time 7h51.
At 40K, still on pace, estimated finish time 7h57. Hitting the 8-hour mark is going to be tough, but I can do it. Break. I’m almost halfway. My body is still holding up.
At 50K, halfway done, now entering uncharted territory on the rower. Break, estimated finish time 8h01. Don’t overthink it, just refill the bottle, take care of the hands, get back on the rower, and keep rowing.
At 60K, the pain starts to really set in. Stay focused on the instant pace, keep the rhythm. Break, estimated finish time 8h04. I’m holding on to my goal.
At 70K, the time starts to drag. The pain, the doubts, the pain. Break, estimated finish time 8h07. I’m slipping away from my target. The pain, the fatigue, the break gets longer, but I know I mustn’t overthink it. I need to get back on the rower as quickly as possible, to avoid my muscles seizing up during the break. Getting the rower going again after each break is getting harder. There’s only a third left to go.
At 80K, I’m tired. I try to stay focused on the pace. I give up on the 8-hour goal, but I need to finish as best as I can. The pain, the fatigue in my arms. The break is welcome, estimated finish time 8h12. I try not to linger too long and get back on the rower as fast as possible. The little voice in my head tells me to stop, to rest. But there are only 20K left.
At 90K, I’m very tired. My arms feel stiff, and I feel like I have no energy left. Only 10% remains. I can finish this. 10 kilometers is 45 minutes of effort, a "breeze." Estimated finish time 8h16.
The last kilometers, a surge of energy, mental strength kicks in. My arms are stiff, my butt hurts, I feel the fatigue in my back, and I sense a leg cramp might hit at any moment. I try to stay focused on the PM5 and watch the distance go down. But it’s not going down fast enough. I push, I pull, I breathe, breathe, keep a rhythm, keep the rhythm. I try to speed up for the last few strokes, it’s hard, really hard. I finish my 100K.
A scream of joy and pain comes out of my mouth, scaring my wife and kids. I unclip my feet and collapse on the floor, exhausted. I try to catch my breath. I stay lying there for a while, just focusing on my breathing, enjoying the moment. I stand up, walk a bit, look at the PM5 to see my performance : 8:17:21.6s. I’m happy I finished, I’m satisfied with the result.
Post-100K Observations :
• I think I was missing a few rowing sessions and more specific strength training to have more upper body strength and endurance, particularly in my arms.
• The lack of soreness makes me think that my training load before the 100K was adequate.
• The lack of "energy" at the end makes me think that my nutrition did not provide enough calories.
• Hydration, using only water mixed with powder for mineral salts and a few calories, worked well for me.
• The physical and mental preparation with rowing, cycling, and strength training seemed to complement each other and allowed me to vary the pleasures and efforts.
• If you believe in yourself, then it’s possible.
Would I do it again? At the moment, I don’t feel like it, but asking the question might already be projecting myself toward the next 100K. Only time will tell.
Thank you for reading to the end, and I hope my modest experience can provide some answers to all the brave souls embarking on this adventure.

[mromero680]

Wow, that is a huge accomplishment. I have never been tempted to go further than a half marathon but I admire the toughness of those who do.

[iain]

Thanks for posting your story and well done for completing this.

Might I add that 2:15 pace was a bit fast? My one 100k was 8:26 at the end although I did have serious stomach issues from too concentrated drinks. I set off at 2:21 and was fine to 50km when stomach problems started. Re upper body strength, great strength is not required for endurance rows. Usually arm pain is due to rowing with arms bent during the earlier part of the stroke (so you are trying to pull against your legs and back).

[MPx]

Great write up thank you. I have absolutley no ambition to do anything longer than 10k so not even vaguely relevant for me but that doesn't mean I dont admire those that do. Fantastic effort, well done.

[Sakly]

I can only echo what others wrote - great writeup and strong efforts

[Dangerscouse]

Great post and achievement, especially with such little experience of rowing. I'm far too familiar with that horrific feeling after circa 65k. It can all too easily become a lottery and your scrambled thoughts of self-preservation make you desperate to HD.

I remember when I did my 50k PB a few years ago, and I was feeling relatively good and confident about attempting another go at the 100k. On the day, it unravelled from circa 65k until 85k when I had to HD. I was totally drained and had nothing left to give.

[ahooton]

This was fantastic to read. Very well done Herve.

[reevio]

Awesome effort! I have never attempted 100k and it scares me somewhat so not sure I ever will… Impressive mental strength.

Only once did the FM on a whim, but intending to have another crack at that in December to claim a very soft PB

[alex9026]

I remember when I did my 50k PB a few years ago, and I was feeling relatively good and confident about attempting another go at the 100k.

It's only on reflection now, I realise how fast your 50k pb is!!

This was fantastic to read. Very well done Herve.

I'll echo this, read it last night, only just got round to replying. Tremendous effort.

[Dangerscouse]

It's only on reflection now, I realise how fast your 50k pb is!!

It was definitely one of my better days and I think it was about eight minutes improvement on my previous PB. Some days everything just aligns, but they are all too rare, especially for the ultra distances. There's just too much that can go wrong.

[ericMX73]

Congratulations on your achievements! I enjoyed reading your journey to 100k.

• If you believe in yourself, then it’s possible.

100% this.

[Erik A]

Great writeup. When I did my marathon walk I experienced all the emotions. Took 7 hrs 20. And I was wrecked physically and mentally so can understand. The joy of completion however is totally worth it. Awesome effort

[piggydwarf]

Hi all, I hope to gather some wisdom from this community over the coming year as I tackle some endurance erging goals. My main focus will be training on the skierg (though I suspect the same principles apply 99% from rowing) - first a 100k, but then ultimately a 200k / all day ski as a personal challenge. My goal pace is a ~2:40 moving speed for the 100k, which would leave me ~6.5 mins of total stoppage time as a buffer to achieve a sub 9 hour completion. This is a long way away, so I'll think more about timing and strategy. But ideally I will have built up the fitness so that this pace feels quite hard but doable as a checkpoint rather than a final destination, so that I'm not utterly broken by the idea of training for double the distance after that. If anyone has ~24 hour specific advice I'd certainly love to hear it!

My plan is to have most of my training be at goal 100k pace, since that lines up with what most seem to advise about finding a steady state UT2 pace, but I find myself conflicted about how to approach "hard" work on the erg with these goals in mind. I am pretty much as pureblooded of a sprinter as they come, so my raw power and ceiling are already far beyond what I'd ever need for this kind of task. For example, it's no problem to ski at <1:25 pace for a minute, but cannot yet crack 2:20 pace for a max effort hour. With that in mind, since I am so disproportionately weak aerobically, it seems to me that a huge focus on building long aerobic volume would be the most relevant to the goal of 100k-200k completion. On the other hand, I totally understand the logic that doing hard high intensity intervals at 2k/5k/10k type pace would drag my endurance pace faster along with it.

And perhaps the best answer is "both" for a well balanced training program, but I worry about destroying myself on grueling interval sessions and having nothing left in the tank mentally to tackle the big endurance sessions that will be critical for survival. After all, holding a ~2:40 doesn't take much "raw fitness" compared to the goals many folks have tackled in this thread, but I will need a lot of preparation just to be moving on the erg that long regardless of pace! Perhaps having a longer day of focused intervals around marathon pace is enough to partially kill these two birds with one stone?

Anyways, I have fallen into overthinking the subject and wanted to see if any had thoughts to share about this! I am right at the beginning of this journey so I want to be in the right mindset to achieve this. I had a great time reading about many of the conquests here, and have already taken some of that advice from earlier pages!

[iain]

I would start by saying that 100k is much harder than I imagined from doing 50-60km. Personally having rowed at 100km pace for even 60km would not have helped much. There are "annoyances" such as PIA and elements you need to work out (eg how will you drink during it and protect hands?) that could be dealt with on these, but the basic issue is running on fat with tired legs and back. As a result my approach is to exercise significantly faster so that I will slow down for my endurance erg.

Not sure about the physiology, but ironman and FM times (rowing and running) times are fairly well correlated with threshold pace. I know correlation isn't causation, but seems sensible to me to train threshold even where the pace used will be significantly less. This is where harder sessions fit in. Also I would not have the patience to stick with a plan of long very slow rows with no variation and no plan works if it isn't carried out.

Finally the biggest challenge is mental. I find it helpful to build recent experience of overcoming the kind of challenges I will need to face so that when faced with something similar I have the positive experience to draw on. As a result, rowing when tired or when the target pace for a significant period is challenging are useful sessions.

[Dangerscouse]

My plan is to have most of my training be at goal 100k pace, since that lines up with what most seem to advise about finding a steady state UT2 pace, but I find myself conflicted about how to approach "hard" work on the erg with these goals in mind. I am pretty much as pureblooded of a sprinter as they come, so my raw power and ceiling are already far beyond what I'd ever need for this kind of task. For example, it's no problem to ski at <1:25 pace for a minute, but cannot yet crack 2:20 pace for a max effort hour. With that in mind, since I am so disproportionately weak aerobically, it seems to me that a huge focus on building long aerobic volume would be the most relevant to the goal of 100k-200k completion. On the other hand, I totally understand the logic that doing hard high intensity intervals at 2k/5k/10k type pace would drag my endurance pace faster along with it.

And perhaps the best answer is "both" for a well balanced training program, but I worry about destroying myself on grueling interval sessions and having nothing left in the tank mentally to tackle the big endurance sessions that will be critical for survival. After all, holding a ~2:40 doesn't take much "raw fitness" compared to the goals many folks have tackled in this thread, but I will need a lot of preparation just to be moving on the erg that long regardless of pace! Perhaps having a longer day of focused intervals around marathon pace is enough to partially kill these two birds with one stone?

Anyways, I have fallen into overthinking the subject and wanted to see if any had thoughts to share about this! I am right at the beginning of this journey so I want to be in the right mindset to achieve this. I had a great time reading about many of the conquests here, and have already taken some of that advice from earlier pages!

First of all, I have huge respect for you to do this, as you're clearly a natural sprinter.

I'd also suggest to aim to train faster than the 100k pace, so you get used to a faster pace and that then becomes an acceptable pace. Even the smallest mental boost is worth considering in a 100k so you can stay on track and focus on all of the horrible things that you will encounter. They are horrible, but hopefully, they will also be manageable too, and intervals at FM pace, rather than 100k would be a good idea to embed it.

FWIW, when I did my 12hr session it was circa +15 on my horrific 100k attempt, and it did feel easy for quite a lot of it, which was a big relief.

Incorporating intervals isn't easy as you need to find the balance by keeping it productive but not overreaching. Ideally I'd say don't push it past circa 90% so you keep something back, but you also do enough to keep testing your body and mindset to endure.

As Iain mentions, half of the battle is to get prepared for the minefield that happens after you get past 50-60k, as everything can totally change, both mentally and physically. This method of "callousing the mind" is essential and needs to be considered at every session.

Best of luck, and keep us updated