Gerhard wrote: For some reason I cannot drink while rowing. How do other people do that?
I'm thinking about doing a marathon and I've been trying to figure that out. My plan is to get a camel back, put it on something about head level, and every so often reach over and grab the tube. Drink while I take a couple of easy strokes.
I normally erg first think in the morning after drinking a couple of cups of green or white tea. This has worked fine for half marathons. I did two 30K's this way, but that is about the limit of what I can handle without food or water. Last week, I did another two thirty K's. Before the rows I ate a cliff bar. During the rows I put a bottle of water on the ground and after 10K started drinking a few sips every 2.5K. I miss a couple of strokes and it seems to cost me about 10 seconds per drink. For the six drinks (~16oz) for the last 30K I did I figure I lost about a minute or about 1 second off the pace. I think the camel back method will cost me much less. Did the 30K's at a 2:02.1 and 2:02.5.
For calories, I haven't decided whether to use a dilute sports drink, something like GU, or eat Cliff bars. If I go the cliff bar route I will break them up in small pieces before hand and pop one piece in my mouth every 3K or so starting at 10K and stopping at about 35K. With the water I will probably take my last drink with 7K or 5K to go.
Yesterday I started a 35K. I was experimenting with drink more per water break but taking less breaks. I stopped after 15K because my wife who had gone swimming came back because the pool was closed. She wanted to go for a tandem ride. So we took the tandem out for almost an hour. Just 12 miles but 1500' of climbing, 13 mph average, 48 mph max.
Want to do a couple of 35K's before I do the full marathon. I plan on doing it with no breaks at a 2:02 pace. If it goes OK I may try to do it a bit faster in the following weeks.
Honestly... I'm not a big fan of distance ANYTHING... I'm a sprinter at heart. 
I tried the 10K once and decided I wouldn't do it again for a while, but then I got so close to 100,000m that I just couldn't pass up getting it in before the start of the new season. Who needs outside competition when you've got a competitive streak like I do! 
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