What Training Have You Done Today?

[Kerry1960]

Today I did a faster 5k after 15 minutes warmup.

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
19:47.0 5,000m 1:58.7 209 1020 26 150
3:54.0 1,000m 1:57.0 219 1052 27 148
3:59.5 2,000m 1:59.7 204 1001 26 148
3:56.8 3,000m 1:58.4 211 1025 27 151
3:57.3 4,000m 1:58.6 210 1021 28 151
3:59.3 5,000m 1:59.6 204 1003 26 155

Nice work Gustel. These are the type of numbers and spm I aspire to for the 5k. Whether I can do it is another matter. This is 22 secs faster than my PB! For me I'd have to keep the stroke rate at 27 -28 to do something like this.

[jcross485]

To my eye, this is still a solid session for a bad day. I know that it's fine lines between good and bad, but you've got to have bad days to make you appreciate the good days.

It's also great to see you attacking this type of session

I appreciate the kind words and encouragement! You are spot on - not so great days make the great ones that much sweeter.

Looking at my training from a birds eye view, the harder or shorter / sharper stuff is what has been missing historically; it wasn't much different when I was running a lot also. I did a lot of aerobic work, liked to do the tempo - threshold type stuff, but struggled to be consistent with the hard stuff, mainly VO2max type work. It's strange as I really enjoy lifting and strength training. As that type of work has been missing, it's where I need to hold myself accountable in performing work with some kind of regularity or consistency and it should, in theory, provide a good amount of bang for the buck as it's a lever that hasn't been fully pulled just yet.

Not a lot of training. I try my best to keep my fitness up and NOT slump into brain-rot. Unfortunately, the uni gym with an erg is closed. This is diabolical.

I am pretty much not making 1:59 30r20 in 1 month. This...

My ankle is finally getting better though... but yeah.

I don't know how some of y'all manage to juggle intense work, intense training and kids all at once. Y'all are beasts.

My motto for these days: go out and do something. Even something small like standing up for one minute every hour. I CAN DO IT

A lot can be unpacked from this.

From what I gather, you're still pretty young. This can be the perfect time to ingrain the right mindset when it comes to this kind of stuff, being health and fitness. I was around a lot of athletes in my high school and collegiate years and even a bit post-collegiately through competition. Now that I am a bit removed from that world and some time has passed, I am fortunate enough to see who has maintained their health and fitness over the last 20+ years and also be able to look back and see how we all approached it back then. A couple of trends stand out in my mind:

- Focus on what is within your control and what you can do; don't worry about things outside of your control or what you can't do. In your case, the gym being closed is outside of your control. You mention a bum ankle which limits what you might not be able to do. With those things though, there is still a lot you can do. Attack what you can do with the same intent that you would attack the BPP. Recently, I traveled away from home for 2 1/2 months for work and did not have access to my normal set up I have in my garage or anything comparable. I knew my erg fitness would suffer and it would take a bit to come back but my thought was that, if I could maintain strength and fitness through other means, the base would be there and the erg would come back quick as opposed to not doing anything because I didn't have an erg, barbell, and plates. That said, I doubled down on body weight and weight vest strength work - I did a crap ton of pull ups, push ups, walking lunges, and incline treadmill walking with a weight vest and some hill sprints. After 2 1/2 months away from home in a hotel with no access to an erg, I am just about 100% back to my prior erg fitness in just a couple of weeks, 12-15 sessions or so.

- Don't focus on hitting a number or result, focus on the work (process) that is needed to get you there. You mention a 1:59 / 500m 30r20 test being a result you want. It's fantastic that you have your eye on something so concrete, that is 100% needed! I am a data driven person that has goal times set for myself also, but it's hard to chase numbers all the time. That said, keep that target in your head but don't let that be the main focus day to day. The focus needs to be on the work that is needed to get to that end point. What is 1:59 / 500m 30r20 going to take for you? I would bet it would take a good aerobic base, a good foundation of strength, and a cleaned up erg stroke to maximize efficiency. Focus on building those three things however you can. You might not have access to an erg in the short term, so double down on doing what you can to address the first two, then when you get access to the erg, put more focus on the erg again. It's much easier to maintain qualities than build them; when you get access to the erg again, it wouldn't take much time or effort to maintain strength built previously.

- Know your why. You mentioned not knowing how people juggle multiple things like careers, family / kids, training, etc. at once; I would venture to guess it comes back to knowing the why. For me personally, being a husband, father to two boys (8 and 5), and someone who wants to be successful in the career space while still pursuing training, I've got my why and remind myself of it daily. Training is a big part of my big picture why and I've found over time that hard consistent training actually makes me a better husband, father, employee, etc. It gives, it doesn't take. It's an investment in a way. If you could take 5% of your money and invest it in a way that the other 95% provides just a 10% better return, you're talking about investing 5% for 9.5% return. To me, training about 6 hours a week (1 hour a day roughly, 6 days a week) provides a much better return than 10%.

One thing I think has been a blessing and curse over time is the explosion of social media. It's going to sound corny but, when I was your age and competing in collegiate athletics, social media wasn't a thing - I think MySpace was just gaining a little bit of popularity and Facebook was just starting toward the end of my athletic career, although it was mainly focused on connecting students in college / university at that time. I was not competing in athletics to be able to post on social media, nor was I competing for any kind of recognition. I personally am of the belief that, if posting to social media or getting recognition from others is your why, that is not strong enough to hold you accountable for the time it will take to truly explore your own potential. I think these forums are a form of social media and a lot of us post what we're doing here not necessarily for recognition but to hold ourselves and each other accountable to the work and process and to hopefully inspire others. But I would also venture to guess that these forums have very little to do with the why deep down. Without these forums, I would bet all of us would be doing these things anyways, just doing it in relative silence and anonymity.

[Sakly]

Gym session today.
Skierg warmup was really fast again, little bit higher rate. This gives me confidence I can go sub 18 easily on the 5k CTC next month. Probably around 17:50 is doable.

Code: Select all

Time	Meters	Pace	Watts	Cal/Hr	S/M
15:00.0	4,192m	1:47.3	283	1273	48
3:00.0	825m	1:49.0	270	1227	47
6:00.0	829m	1:48.5	274	1241	48
9:00.0	837m	1:47.5	282	1268	47
12:00.0	844m	1:46.6	289	1293	49
15:00.0	858m	1:44.8	303	1343	50

Handstand pushups and ring pullups were a struggle. Scale after training gave me some idea why, it showed 85kg
So much crap foods last days/weeks, not feeling very well atm.

[jcross485]

12/26 - 12k erg.

3k warm up, 24 x 250m (:30 rest), 3k cool down.

Redemption. The plan for this one was to be a bit faster than my last 12 x 500m (:30 rest) session with a bit lower HR. Pace target was to be around the mid to upper 1:53's as this would have me faster than last session; I started with a 1:53.0 even and it felt easy so went with something that felt controlled throughout; exact same number of strokes for every interval (24) and pace really worked down to something reasonably quick for me near the end. HR on the intervals was mid to high 150s (average) compared to mid to high 160s (average) on my last so big win there. Very good session overall. This session also put me just over 5 million meters lifetime!

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
47:02.2 12,000m 1:57.5 215 1040 22 149

4:10.0 1,000m 2:05.0 179 916 19 129
4:10.1 1,000m 2:05.0 179 915 19 140
4:10.0 1,000m 2:05.0 179 916 19 141
r: 1:00 36m
0:56.5 250m 1:53.0 243 1134 25 146
r: 0:30 42m
0:56.3 250m 1:52.6 245 1143 26 152
r: 0:30 31m
0:56.1 250m 1:52.2 248 1152 26 151
r: 0:30 35m
0:56.1 250m 1:52.2 248 1152 26 154
r: 0:30 34m
0:56.0 250m 1:52.0 249 1157 26 156
r: 0:30 31m
0:55.8 250m 1:51.6 252 1166 26 156
r: 0:30 33m
0:55.9 250m 1:51.8 250 1161 26 156
r: 0:30 33m
0:55.7 250m 1:51.4 253 1171 26 155
r: 0:30 35m
0:55.7 250m 1:51.4 253 1171 26 154
r: 0:30 34m
0:55.6 250m 1:51.2 255 1176 26 158
r: 0:30 40m
0:55.3 250m 1:50.6 259 1190 26 158
r: 0:30 35m
0:55.3 250m 1:50.6 259 1190 26 159
r: 0:30 27m
0:55.2 250m 1:50.4 260 1195 26 158
r: 0:30 34m
0:55.0 250m 1:50.0 263 1205 26 156
r: 0:30 33m
0:55.2 250m 1:50.4 260 1195 26 156
r: 0:30 36m
0:54.7 250m 1:49.4 267 1219 26 158
r: 0:30 37m
0:54.6 250m 1:49.2 269 1225 26 159
r: 0:30 34m
0:54.5 250m 1:49.0 270 1230 26 160
r: 0:30 37m
0:54.5 250m 1:49.0 270 1230 26 159
r: 0:30 36m
0:54.4 250m 1:48.8 272 1235 26 160
r: 0:30 41m
0:54.3 250m 1:48.6 273 1240 27 161
r: 0:30 45m
0:54.3 250m 1:48.6 273 1240 27 161
r: 0:30 35m
0:54.2 250m 1:48.4 275 1245 27 162
r: 0:30 39m
0:53.9 250m 1:47.8 279 1261 27 163
r: 1:00 30m
4:09.0 1,000m 2:04.5 181 924 19 146
4:09.0 1,000m 2:04.5 181 924 19 145
4:09.0 1,000m 2:04.5 181 924 19 146

[Gustel]

Nice work Gustel. These are the type of numbers and spm I aspire to for the 5k. Whether I can do it is another matter. This is 22 secs faster than my PB! For me I'd have to keep the stroke rate at 27 -28 to do something like this.

Thanks. I am still trying to get back into it after the bad cough, which is now almost completely gone. My hope is to increase the length of the sessions over the next weeks.

[Sakly]

This session also put me just over 5 million meters lifetime!

Nice session!
I think you can get a longsleeve now being in the 5mm club

[jcross485]

Nice session!
I think you can get a longsleeve now being in the 5mm club

Thanks!

And yes sir - considering we're dealing with some cooler temps here, the long sleeve will be a comfy addition to the work from home collection!

[iain]

I found that confidence is the most important part of ultra distances. As you know, you will suffer, that's unavoidable, but how you perceive it is vital.

I'd suggest that you keep doing what you're doing, and take the benefits of some harder stuff, but in reality you'll probably only gain from the confidence that you can do it, so just mould them to something that challenges you to some extent, but doesn't make you suffer. This is especially important as over Christmas you'll probably struggle to recover properly, so there's no benefit in adding to the issue.

I don't see much benefit in training with a higher stroke rate, but I might be wrong, so I'd keep training at a medium to low range.

I would also possibly consider doing longer intervals at UT1, just to keep in touch with a faster pace, but slow enough not to really zap you.

When all is said and done, I honestly believe you'll succeed due to being mentally prepared and ready to accept the suffering, and that's not something you can ever prepare for until it happens. Even now, I think I'm prepared for it, but it still smacks me round the head (repeatedly) when it all starts to unravel and it's roll of the dice for how I'll react.

Best of luck with it, and I'm sure it will work out whatever training you decide to do. How long a distance are you doing?

Thanks Stu for your advice. I have found a victim to do the million tandem I have been considering for 4 years! Not sure whether there is any training I can do for sleep deprivation that wouldn't have a bigger impact from poorer general training! I do 1-2 of the longer rows at UT1 R19 to acclimatise to pushing on with tired legs, that is why I only generally manage one AT level session a week. Today to mix it up did 60R20 at max and managed to beat my season's best for the hour (nothing to write home about as only just exceeded 14k, only just faster than your easy R18), but stayed close to max throughout so faded from 2:05.9 in first 10' to 2:09.8 in penultimate one, an exercise in driving on tired legs.

Rocky, 100k a week may sound a lot, but facing nearly 4 days of rowing half the time focuses the mind as any pain now will be dwalfed by the real thing!

[Gustel]

1 hr steady row. I could feel my back from yesterday’s 5k after 30 min and took it easy for the second half while watching tv.

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
1:00:00.0 13,264m 2:15.7 140 781 20 131
12:00.0 2,700m 2:13.3 148 808 19 133
24:00.0 2,687m 2:13.9 146 800 19 136
36:00.0 2,680m 2:14.3 144 796 19 135
48:00.0 2,632m 2:16.7 137 770 21 129
1:00:00.0 2,565m 2:20.3 127 735 22 123

[alex9026]

38:53.7 10,000m 1:56.6 220 1058 21
7:50.8 2,000m. 1:57.7 215 1038 21
7:47.3 4,000m 1:56.8 220 1055 21
7:50.5 6,000m. 1:57.6 215 1040 21
7:50.5 8,000m. 1:57.6 215 1040 21
7:34.7 10,000m 1:53.6 238 1120 21

Post deadlifts 10k. Reigned it in a touch at 4k, picked up last 1500m.

[Dangerscouse]

I have found a victim to do the million tandem I have been considering for 4 years!

Wow. Ultra is a massive under statement!! I can only assume that confidence, callousing of the mind and an outstanding ability to endure and endure and endure are what's going to get you through.

I don't doubt that you've got all of that, and the pace isn't important when you're doing circa 500k, so don't focus on that. You've just done a SB pace, so that's far more important than anything else you could be distracted by.

[Dangerscouse]

Without these forums, I would bet all of us would be doing these things anyways, just doing it in relative silence and anonymity.

Definitely. I find the forum a great way to help others and share & appreciate success in all its forms, but I'd not change anything if it was only just me on my own without social media.

It feels far more like camaraderie for an esoteric sport, than it being something I want to brag about / show off.

[Sakly]

Having paused on the rower for some days, I restarted with a HM r18.

Code: Select all

Time	Meters	Pace	Watts	Cal/Hr	S/M	❤️
1:24:14	21,097m	1:59.7	204	1000	18	139
10:34.1	2,638m	2:00.1	202	993	18	136
10:32.5	5,276m	1:59.8	203	999	18	137
10:32.4	7,914m	1:59.8	203	999	18	137
10:32.2	10,552m	1:59.8	203	1000	18	139
10:32.0	13,190m	1:59.7	204	1000	18	140
10:31.3	15,828m	1:59.6	204	1003	18	140
10:31.2	18,466m	1:59.6	204	1003	18	141
10:28.8	21,097m	1:59.4	205	1005	18	144

Was awake for >2 hours during the night, no idea what was wrong. It seems it had no influence on the rowing workout.

[Dangerscouse]

18:23.7 5,000m 1:50.3 260 1195 25 149
3:44.7 1,000m 1:52.3 247 1149 25 140
3:40.8 2,000m 1:50.4 260 1195 25 144
3:40.6 3,000m 1:50.3 261 1197 25 150
3:39.9 4,000m 1:49.9 263 1206 25 154
3:37.7 5,000m 1:48.8 271 1233 25 158

A mixed bag today. I couldn't get out of bed this morning, so it looks like the continual training, booze and lots of food finally caught up with me. My lower back is a bit aggravated, probably due to the too fast & intense movements in pilates on Tuesday, but it didn't seem altogether bother me too much.

I did a fairly intense 10 mins warmup, and then wimped out of doing the CTC, and opted for a no pressure, r25 capped 5k, which turned out to be just what I needed.

I really think I need to incrementally rebuild my confidence rather than trying to grab it all at once, as my fitness doesn't seem to be the issue, but the narrative fallacy in my head that I'm not quite capable is an issue.

[jcross485]

Definitely. I find the forum a great way to help others and share & appreciate success in all its forms, but I'd not change anything if it was only just me on my own without social media.

It feels far more like camaraderie for an esoteric sport, than it being something I want to brag about / show off.

It's very much esoteric, well stated. Most people can wrap their head around a X min mile or an XXX lbs / kgs lift. Understanding what it might take to erg some of the 500m, 2k or other distance times people put up at the higher ends of the sport is just not understood or appreciated until you try it.

I really think I need to incrementally rebuild my confidence rather than trying to grab it all at once, as my fitness doesn't seem to be the issue, but the narrative fallacy in my head that I'm not quite capable is an issue.

You're clearly fit - that is not the issue. The mind games we can play with ourselves though can really add up. One thing I have tried to do with my oldest son with his school work or his taekwondo is finding a way to stack small wins. He was struggling to break a certain board he needed to for this latest testing. We started practicing with a much thinner / easier board to reinforce the speed, technique, and follow through. He seemed to be more apt to really attack an "easy board" and then get hesitant with the "hard board"; it ends up making things worst though as following through the board is one of the keys. Once he really started showing some aggression with the "easy board", we would do a couple of those and then progress to something a bit more intermediate. Once he started showing some aggression and proficiency with the intermediate one consistently, I grabbed the hard one and he went right through it on his first attempt. I bring this up because he always had the ability to break the hard board, he just didn't believe and his mind would stop him from doing what he was capable of. Going through that taught me a lot about my own training too.