New Personal Best! Brag About That New Pb!

[MPx]

1:24.4 500m 1:24.4 582 2303 45

Very nice indeed. ...and a 2:00 first stroke doesn't sound so bad to me!

[Dangerscouse]

1:24.4 500m 1:24.4 582 2303 45
0:16.6 100m 1:23.0 612 2406 51
0:16.5 200m 1:22.5 623 2445 44
0:16.6 300m 1:23.0 612 2406 47
0:17.1 400m 1:25.5 560 2227 42
0:17.6 500m 1:28.0 514 2067 44

Granted my current pb was some low hanging fruit, but I'll take this as a platform moving forward. I need to work on my first pull, it was a 2:00 split, leaves me so much work to do.

Cracking PB Alex.

[alex9026]

Thanks gents. Sprinting is not my strong point, never was running or cycling either so don't anticipate it ever will be on the Erg! Relatively, I adapt/respond to the longer stuff better than I do the short.

[Sakly]

Thanks gents. Sprinting is not my strong point, never was running or cycling either so don't anticipate it ever will be on the Erg! Relatively, I adapt/respond to the longer stuff better than I do the short.

Can relate to it fully
You need to update your signature

[alex9026]

Can relate to it fully
You need to update your signature

Well reminded, I also need to add 3kg of bodyweight to it, too

[Sakly]

[quote=alex9026 post_id=592131 time=1736238577
Can relate to it fully
You need to update your signature

Well reminded, I also need to add 3kg of bodyweight to it, too

Hopefully it's lean mass
Would like to add some cm height to mine, but I assume that won't happen...

[HornetMaX]

Didn't find a thread for a New Personal Worst, so I'll post here

After 4 months of training on 23 Nov I went for a FM TT, hoping to bring it under the 3h mark (my FM PB was just 24s off that).
The training went very well, improvement was crystal clear and the first 24Km of the TT went as planned: pace 2:05.5 and HR in 150-155 range, exactly where I wanted to be (see here).
I had to stop after 24K because I needed a bio-break (maybe drank too much) and decided to stop there and give it a go the week after.

But 1h after that I started to have abdominal pain/cramps, constant stimulus to go to the toilet and nothing ... ehm ... coming out.
After a few (painful) hours I ended up at the local ER where they ultimately did what was necessary to evacuate the "fluid" (a whopping 2 liters).
But having a small pipe going deep in your "private parts" can lead to minor complications in the followup and, of course, they happened.
Long story short, once the pipe has been removed I topped the whole experience with 3 consecutive infections (only one related, the 2 others just coincidences/due to overall weakness) and didn't do any training for 4 weeks.

I was of course expecting to be pretty off shape once I started training again but boy, I've exceeded my expectations: in a 30min session at a constant and very calm pace (like 2:11/2:12 on the RowErg, or 2:22-2:23 on the SkiErg) my HR is 15-20bpm higher than before

Damn, it's gonna be a loong recovery

P.S.
The only upside is that I used the extra free time to write some code to graphically compare sessions (stroke data), I'll post that soon here on the forum.

[alex9026]

Hopefully it's lean mass
Would like to add some cm height to mine, but I assume that won't happen...

Erm, let's just settle for a generous 50/50! don't worry, even 6'2 doesn't feel particularly tall for a rower!

But 1h after that I started to have abdominal pain/cramps, constant stimulus to go to the toilet and nothing ... ehm ... coming out.
After a few (painful) hours I ended up at the local ER where they ultimately did what was necessary to evacuate the "fluid" (a whopping 2 liters).
But having a small pipe going deep in your "private parts" can lead to minor complications in the followup and, of course, they happened.
Long story short, once the pipe has been removed I topped the whole experience with 3 consecutive infections (only one related, the 2 others just coincidences/due to overall weakness) and didn't do any training for 4 weeks.

Blinking heck, sounds like a worrying time for you, glad to read you're finally on the mend. You might suprise yourself with how quickly fitness returns, at the beginning it always feels like it's a long way away, but on the grand scheme of things four weeks isn't that much, providing in your case your general health is in a good place.

[Dangerscouse]

I was of course expecting to be pretty off shape once I started training again but boy, I've exceeded my expectations: in a 30min session at a constant and very calm pace (like 2:11/2:12 on the RowErg, or 2:22-2:23 on the SkiErg) my HR is 15-20bpm higher than before

Damn, it's gonna be a loong recovery

First of all, glad to hear you're on the mend as that sounds traumatic. Drinking too much is worse than not drinking enough, so you've got to be really careful.

You'll make notably quick improvements in fitness so just zone out for a week or two and just take it slowly and let it take it's own course.

[Jbrown1215]

But 1h after that I started to have abdominal pain/cramps, constant stimulus to go to the toilet and nothing ... ehm ... coming out.
After a few (painful) hours I ended up at the local ER where they ultimately did what was necessary to evacuate the "fluid" (a whopping 2 liters).
But having a small pipe going deep in your "private parts" can lead to minor complications in the followup and, of course, they happened.
Long story short, once the pipe has been removed I topped the whole experience with 3 consecutive infections (only one related, the 2 others just coincidences/due to overall weakness) and didn't do any training for 4 weeks.

Sorry to hear about your ordeal :-/.

This might seem a bit random, but what you described made me think it may be worth reading up on pelvic floor dysfunction, something that's more commonly discussed amongst women, and much less so with men, although it's more common than we'd think... Symptoms can present in a myriad of ways, but one of them is feeling the need to pee frequently, and having difficulty doing so (weak stream, inability to completely empty the bladder, etc.). In short, pelvic floor muscles can develop imbalances and/or weaknesses and become overworked and hypertonic over time. Those of us who are more sedentary and are on our butts for much of the day are more susceptible. So if you work a desk job, AND are spending regular time on a bike or on a rower, the risk is higher.

I've dealt with pelvic floor dysfunction since the summer of 2023 and at first did a whole battery of tests including a cystoscopy, urinalysis, PSA test, bladder ultrasound, CT scan, etc... All came back negative and turned up nothing. Happy to know I didn't have cancer or something grave causing my symptoms, but frustrating that I couldn't ID the root cause. Neither my primary care doc nor urologist ever brought up pelvic floor dysfunction at all, and it was only after a lot of scouring on the web that I stumbled upon it. Ended up doing pelvic floor physical therapy for ~3 months, dry needling, and incorporating more stress/anxiety management into my daily routine, and am thankfully now at a point where it's manageable aside from the occasional flare up.

Best of luck on your road to recovery!

[HornetMaX]

Blinking heck, sounds like a worrying time for you, glad to read you're finally on the mend.

First of all, glad to hear you're on the mend as that sounds traumatic. Drinking too much is worse than not drinking enough, so you've got to be really careful.

Thanks to both.

BTW, I didn't mean that the drinking may have been the cause of the big trouble, that's very unlikely: it wasn't excessive compared to my previous HMs & FMs (I'd say roughly 1.0-1.5L up to Km 24), also thanks to the fact it's winter here so temps are very reasonable. I even took my weight right before start and right after stopping, no big change.

Sorry to hear about your ordeal :-/.

This might seem a bit random, but what you described made me think it may be worth reading up on pelvic floor dysfunction

Interesting advice, thanks. I'll look (well, have a doctor look) into that.

Anyway, back on the Ergs so that's already something.