5K challenge week 35

Gerhard · Post by **Gerhard** » July 4th, 2007, 4:16 am

Bryan Castro and myself (Gerhard) have agreed on a private intercontinental 5K challenge. Fastest 5K wins, time has to be set anytime between august 27 and august 31.

Our PB's on 2K and 5K are similar.

Bryan: 2K@7.55 5K@22.00
Gerhard: 2K@7.58 5K@21.32

This thread will contain our daily progress reports and you can use it to discuss the odds, expected race results, place your bets and give your comments on our training schedules and results. If you are about as slow as we are

, you might even consider joining the challenge.

Gerhard · Post by **Gerhard** » July 4th, 2007, 4:32 am

My workout schedule for this week:

1) 6K continuous interval (1K @ 2.20 @ 20SPM, 1K @ 2.00 @ 28SPM)
2) 60 minutes LSD (@2.20, 18SPM)
3) 10K continuous interval (1K @ 2.25 @ 20SPM / 1K @2.05 @ 25 SPM)
4) 30 minutes power strokes (@2.10, 18SPM)

BTW: I realize that 28SPM is a high rate for a 2.00 pace, but so far that seems to be the only way for me to actually complete workout nr 1....

I hope to manage 5 or 6 workouts for the upcoming week, but I will let the additional workouts depend on my physical and mental state

.

bscastro · Post by **bscastro** » July 4th, 2007, 7:56 am

Greetings,

I'm looking forward to this challenge with my friend Gerhard. This week, I will be away from the erg a bit, but I will get in the following training.

Today: Running 30 minutes
Thursday: Erg 40 minutes, around 2:25 @ 20 spm.
Friday: Running 30 minutes
Saturday: DAY OFF - my friend's wedding!
Sunday: DAY OFF - travelling

Next week, I will be training six days and taking Sunday off in general.

Bryan

Gerhard · Post by **Gerhard** » July 6th, 2007, 6:34 am

Yesterdays workout:

1500 meters warmup

6K continuous interval:
1K @ 2.17, 1K @ 2.00, repeat three times, totalling 25.39 which beat my previous PB with a full 23 seconds!

1000 meters cooldown

Gerhard · Post by **Gerhard** » July 6th, 2007, 6:43 am

Expectation:

I've been doing some calculations, and I should currently be able to do 5K in about 20.50 (on an all out attempt).

The calculations are based on my PB's on 500m, 1K, 10K and 1HR (I can provide the details if anyone is interested) . Yesterdays 6K PB has shown that the calculation may actually be correct: 25.39, the first 1K in 4.35 -> The final 5K in 21.04.

I hope to make some progress over the next 8 weeks and aim at 20.30 by the end of August. I'd be very happy if I succeed!

Gerhard · Post by **Gerhard** » July 8th, 2007, 5:03 am

Saturday morning:

30 minutes strapless; 6600 meters.

I find it hard to control the end of the drive. Probaly lean back too much, but I lose power if I don't. Need to work on that...

Saturday evening:

Wanted to join a 77 minutes rowpro-race, but technical problems with the freaking program prevented me from joining the race. I decided on a 2K all out instead, to get rid of the frustration.

Improved my PB from 7.58 to 7.42

Looks like I'm on schedule for my 20.30 - 20.50 by the end of August.

Gerhard · Post by **Gerhard** » July 10th, 2007, 3:34 am

Did a 10K continuous interval yesterday:

1K @ 2.15 @ 21SPM
1K @ 2.05 @ 25SPM

Resulting in a 43.24 PB! That's one minute off in about a week. I'm very happy about recent progress.

Tyn · Post by **Tyn** » July 10th, 2007, 4:46 am

Congrats on your Pb Gerhard!

bscastro · Post by **bscastro** » July 10th, 2007, 6:58 am

After a week of vacation and lackluster exercise, I've begun my serious training in earnest. I kicked off this competition with a 5k test this morning (5:30 AM!) to get a baseline. I did a 10 minute warm-up (1884 m) and 5 minute cool-down (792 m)

Time: 21:53.6

This is a PB, and I'm pleased I did okay for the fact that I didn't feel good at all (although I guess if I felt good I might not be going all out). Stroke rate was between 24-25, but at times near the middle I went down to 22 and in the last 500, brought the rate up to 28 spm.

Gerhard, you've got a little bit of a lead on me I think, but this is a two month competition, so I'm looking forward to giving you some good motivation through my hard work. Your workouts so far have been quite impressive!

My general plan is to do a lot of distance work, both rowing and running (to break things up a bit). I will throw in some faster stuff once or twice a week, but I need to concentrate on getting my aerobic base developed. I want to do a 6K test in the middle of the competition to check my progress, but I will save the next 5K effort for August 31st!

Other areas that will be important will be nutrition and rest. I noticed that when I am eating well, even very hard efforts seem a "little" easier. Or at least recovery is better.

In any case, looking forward to the challenge!

Bryan

Gerhard · Post by **Gerhard** » July 11th, 2007, 8:35 am

Attempted a HM, but I failed. I was cruising along just under 2.20 (aiming at a time somewhere between 1.37 and 1.38) when after 17K my but got sore. Not just a little, but total agony on each stroke. Took a one minute break after 18K to see if things got better. They didn't.

So todays workout was 18.200 meters at 2.18.6 @ 19SPM. Still a good workout, but very close to a HM PB by 6 minutes. Maybe next week...

Gerhard · Post by **Gerhard** » July 13th, 2007, 5:07 am

Yesterdays workout: 6K continuous interval; trying to increase SPI.

600m hard@ 1.58 @23SPM / 24SPM
600m recovery@ 2.31 @ 18 SPM

repeat 5 times.

bscastro · Post by **bscastro** » July 16th, 2007, 8:08 am

Yesterday, I spent 10 minutes on erg and rowed 2029 meters. I then did other exercise (jump rope, calisthenics, basketball) for about an hour.

Today, I plan a longer piece on the erg which I will report later.

This last week has been rough with a surprise visit from relatives midweek and a lot of work, but I plan on working out every day this week!

Bryan

Gerhard · Post by **Gerhard** » July 17th, 2007, 3:49 am

Last workout was on Friday the 13th, but I came through. Did a 6K (again), tried to increase stroke power.

1000 easy @ 2.10,
1000 hard @2.00

Could not keep it up completely (lost a few seconds on the second and third 'easy' / recovery intervals) but I came close and improved my PB from 25.39 to 25.19.

Went away to the Ardennes for the weekend, played some golf in the hills (scores around 30 stableford @ hcp 28). Good family fun. Lot of late night drinking. Tonight I'll see how that impacts my performance on the erg...

Gerhard · Post by **Gerhard** » July 20th, 2007, 3:00 am

No more golf, back to rowing.

Wednesdays workout: 2K warmup; 4*2K 5'R; 2K cooldown
8.05 / 8.28 / 8.22 / 8.10 (avg pace 2.04)

Thursdays workout: 2000 / 1500/ 1000 / 500 (no warmup)
8.22 / 6.09 / 4.09 / 1.51 (avg pace 2.03)

Hope I'll get the pace for these intervals under 2 minutes by next week!

Gerhard · Post by **Gerhard** » July 25th, 2007, 4:47 am

Only 5 more weeks to go till week 35. Looks like it is going to be a private challenge, since Bryan appears to be very busy with work. That won't stop me from spamming the forum with my personal training results though

saturday 21-7
30 minute row, 6914 meters (2.10), accidental PB. I'll try to break 7K later this week.

sunday 22-7
Testing rowpro online with a friend. Got the thing working. did a 500 meter and a 1000 meter 'slow race' at around 1.58.

monday 23-7
Joined a 2*5K rowpro workout. Finished very, very much in last place but great fun. Did a 21.14 and a 21.35, the first one was actually a PB but I hope to beat that one by a large margin in about 5 weeks!

wednesday 25-7
8K Pyramid training
(500-1'/ 1000-2'/ 1500-3'/ 2000-4'/ 1500-3'/ 1000-2'/ 500);
avg 2:02.8 @ 25 SPM

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5K challenge week 35

5K challenge week 35

Back in the saddle.