The Road To Boston 2008

Veronique · Post by **Veronique** » February 9th, 2008, 7:13 pm

Congrats on your PB Michael. Should be a good psychological boost to get under 7:00. Someone here said "once you've done it, it becomes easy."

Having problems with the forum too, Carla. They must be working on it (noticed the UK forum had issues too and now all of a sudden the look has changed). Interesting timing but anyway...

Did the 4x1k today. Usually I either row in the evening or very early in the morning but today I started at 11 am and that does make a big difference. I've never done this workout at lower than 1:53.2 pace and now got 1:52.2.

Times:
1:52.9 @27 spm
1:52.8 @27 spm
1:51.8 @29 spm
1:50.8 @31 spm
Stuck to the planned 1:53 for the first 2 and then sprinted for 200m on the 3rd one. It felt like I had more left in the tank so sprinted for 400m on the last one and managed to keep it under 1:50 until the end. Was quite surprised at this.

Very happy with this. Only disadvantage is that I'm running out of excuses to not start at a 1:53 on the 24th and it scares the hell out of me. And I should probably do a fairly long sprint which I find equally scary.

Good to remember that we do this for fun.

Veronique

Rowmaniac · Post by **Rowmaniac** » February 9th, 2008, 8:27 pm

Veronique, nice job on the 1Ks!!! You are on track to do an awesome 2K in Boston!

Carla, pat yourself on the back (hopefully it's not too sore

) for doing those AT workouts after that long 7777 row you did so well. That's a lot of meters, and not exactly what I'd call tapering so don't worry!

Speaking of worrying, it's hard not to be anxious about tomorrow. My race is at 12:45. I have my plan and will just try to stick with it. I wonder if I'll sleep at all before Boston. This is just a regional thing, but b/c it's an official qualifying regatta, I'm going to be anxious until it's done. OK, very anxious.

I went to the boathouse to see my team off on the water at 6:45 this morning but stayed on land (per my coach and common sense) and did a few very short teaser pieces at race pace and sprint-to- finish pace just to move the blood into the legs. The odd thing is that the biking I did yesterday that seemed like nothing has left my hamstrings sore. I'm so darned mad at myself right now for doing it that I could scream. Luckily, I am 90% sure that the reason they are sore is b/c the muscles are different than the ones I use to row. So hopefully it won't matter. Who knew a normal person could stress so much about a race that doesn't even last 8 minutes??????????

Good, bad, ugly, or painful, I'll report back after the race tomorrow. Somebody out there drink a nice glass of wine for me tonight? I haven't had any in days prepping for the race (and who can fit in wine when you are trying to drink a gallon of water in a day, ugh) and I could sure use a glass or two right now! This is my very first indoor race. The mickey mouse thing I did within my own club last February doesn't count. That was kind of like playing the piano for family when you've only had 5 lessons--they are charitable, pat you on the back, and then take you out for breakfast and tell you that you did a great job.

michaelb · Post by **michaelb** » February 9th, 2008, 8:41 pm

Good luck tomorrow Deborah. I continue to believe that at least part of rowing is believing you can row what you plan. I am always full of self doubt the night before and in the moments leading up to the row. So believe in and stick to your race plan.

Veronica: how much rest on the 4x1000s? Unless you were taking a lot of rest, I would think you could hold 1:53 for a 2k race pace. You crushed that in the last two 1000s.

TomR · Post by **TomR** » February 9th, 2008, 9:10 pm

All I did today was some shoulderr and hamstring rehab. Glad for the rest.

Everyone seems to be knocking their training and trials dead. Impressive all around. Looking forward to hearing howi Deborah's race goes.

Rocket Roy · Post by **Rocket Roy** » February 10th, 2008, 5:25 am

Sunday a recovery/rest day.

1 hour 45 mins Turbo bike, with the first hour at 221 average watts up a mountain.

may do the same again this afternoon.

Yankeerunner · Post by **Yankeerunner** » February 10th, 2008, 10:29 am

No luck for me getting onto the forum yesterday either. I had to go to Jane's (Little Weed) pink forum to get my fix.

michaelb, big congrats on the sub-7. I had seen somewhere that you were going for it and I'm glad you made it. Those whole-number barriers are always the sweetest to break through.

Veronique, I think that Mike Cavistion does his 4 X 1000m workout by starting one every 10 minutes, and finds that the average pace pretty accurately predicts his 2km pace. In other words, if you did yours with about 6 minutes rest between you can probably be confident of taking that average into your 2km.

I like the mighty chondria too. Heh heh. Good one Tom.

Looking forward to the race results from Trevor and Deborah.

Yesterday morning was an easy 5km, and was done at 8:00am at home insead of 5:30am at the gym. That usually means I go a bit faster.

1894m 09:00.0 2:22.5 20spm (warmup)
5000m 20:24.1 2:02.4 25spm
1853m 09:00.0 2:25.6 19spm (cooldown)

S10MPS with the monitor covered except for meters, 48 degrees, 128df, ribs wrapped, Clint Black on the Cd player. I was going to go without the wrap, but Denise said "Why take a chance so close to the race?" so I put it on. She can be so smart. It turned out to be the fastest that I've done one of these recovery 5kms, and without discernable extra effort. I hope that it means that I'm coming to a nice peak at the right time.

After the workday it was time for another hard interval session. I added another 10% to the work interval of last time (up to 363m from 330m) while keeping the rest at 1' active, and planned to start out at my new current 2km pace of 1:48.7.

3183m 14:00.0 2:11.9 23spm (warmup)
3630m 12:46.1 1:45.5 33spm
1797m 10:00.0 of 20spm paddles
2855m 14:00.0 2:27.1 18spm (cooldown)

53 degrees, 157df, ribs wrapped, Meatloaf's original Bat Out Of Hell on the CD player. All went well, the first being 1:48.2 pace and getting faster by 0.5 seconds each succeding one. After the 9th at 1:44.2 pace and still breathing quite hard after the 1' paddle, I let all the demons out on the final one and did 1:38.3 pace. Happy with that. As my work intervals get faster the distance covered in the 10' of paddling gets less and less. No matter, the point is to improve the work intervals.

Today is the one year anniversary of the start of my current round of rib/back problems. On February 10th, 2007 I did a 4 X 4' TR in preparation for Boston and something snapped inside. Must be careful to not overdo things. Just a steady 10km on the schedule.

Rocket Roy · Post by **Rocket Roy** » February 10th, 2008, 11:12 am

1 hour Turbo this afternoon....600 more cals gone....that'll be my full English i had for breakfast then

Yankeerunner · Post by **Yankeerunner** » February 10th, 2008, 1:47 pm

Full English Brekkie? I'm jealous. I had oatmeal.

Steady state today.

01727m 08:00.0 2:18.9 20spm (warmup)
10000m 41:09.3 2:03.5 24spm
01651m 08:00.0 2:27.1 19spm (cooldown)

S10MPS with the monitor covered except for meters, 51 degrees, 118df, ribs wrapped, Bryan Adams on the CD player. Felt a little weary during the second half, much as I did the day after the last interval session, but not too bad and now I have an easy day of reading and TV ahead to recover for tomorrow morning. I'll be needing to cut back one of these days, but not just yet.
splits:
1000m 2:09.3 23spm
2000m 2:06.4 23spm
3000m 2:06.4 23spm
4000m 2:02.8 24spm
5000m 2:03.5 24spm
6000m 2:03.5 24spm
7000m 2:02.9 25spm
8000m 2:02.1 25spm
9000m 2:00.9 25spm
10000m 1:58.6 25spm

P.S. Deborah, I had a glass of wine just for you. I hope it helped.

Veronique · Post by **Veronique** » February 10th, 2008, 9:40 pm

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I actually took 6' rest on the 1k pieces and did them with the intent to figure out what to aim for on the 24th. I do like to negative split so will start a little slower to give myself some "decision points" along the way where I can speed up or stay put. So there's the race plan (I hear some managers say: "Now the hard part's done; all you've got to do is execute...

).

3x 20' r5 today at club. Was supposed to be steady state but started out a bit fast and never let up. Oh well, there's always tomorrow to take it easy.
2:06.2 @ 22spm 4754m
2:05.8 @ 22spm 4768m
2:04.8 @ 23spm 4806m

Interested to see Deborah's and Trevor's race reports. Race itself should be done by now.

Rowmaniac · Post by **Rowmaniac** » February 10th, 2008, 10:44 pm

It's not easy to write this, but I went handle down at about 1300 meters. I was on track for a 7:16, but not the 7:14 I was hoping for, and somehow I just felt too lousy to keep going. I didn't fly and die, either. I followed my plan and was negative splitting. I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden it felt like I just could not go on. I have some flu-like symptoms, but doubt that would be enough to make me feel like I needed to stop.

I think I might have put just a bit too much pressure on myself. That's probably a monumental understatement. I'm learning a lot about myself through this process. A friend of a friend came to my erg (I was seeded #1 so I was on the very end) and started trying to talk to me and I just about missed the start of the darned race and ended up grabbing the handle in a panic. It took me 500m to get over being angry at myself for being so stupid. All in all, this was a pretty abysmal day.

So it's time to try to fight the sore throat, earache, upset stomach, and feelings of despair and work on a plan for Boston.

Our club has its own 2K indoor sprint next weekend. After about 5 hours of contemplation (and a bit of a pity party to be honest), I've decided to go row the 2K there and then get my butt to Boston. I will then know I can do a good 2K, and it would otherwise feel as if I wrote about 28 chapters of my first novel and scrapped the manuscript before writing the final two. I'd just never forgive myself after training so hard (possibly too much, thinking about that, too.)

I was just thinking yesterday (since my hubby is under the weather) that I've been so lucky not to get sick through this training, and I'm still not sure if what happened today is physical, part physical, some character defect, or some of both (my guess), but I hate quitters and am going to have to work to forgive myself for putting that handle down and walking away.

I hope this experience will render some sort of benefit down the road. I'd like to think so. I'm not too proud of myself at the moment.

seat5 · Post by **seat5** » February 11th, 2008, 12:21 am

Deborah, I am really torn up for you. You clearly are physically tremendously capable but the combination of the internal pressure and the confusion at the start mangled your mental focus. Also, I know that for myself if I have a certain split I'm trying to be at and I'm off track for it it's very hard to handle the pain and work if I don't think it will be "worth it" because I won't hit the goal.

One thing I have found that helps me is to figure out the av I want to hit at the end and do up 3 or 4 different "plans" and write them on a sticky note.
I still have last year's post it note. It reads:

1:53 7:32
1:52.5 7:30
1:51.5 7:26
and below that:
1:53 1:53 1:53
1:53 1:52 1:52
1:52 1:51 1:51
1:48 1:50 1:48

First of all, I totally lose my wits and can hardly remember my goal in a race. This makes me panic frantically. This way, I can see that how I might be able to still hit the final goal based on what I've managed so far. It's a comfort to me. Even though what I ended up rowing in that race didn't remotely resemble any of those "plans", when I knew I was behind in pace I still had something to hang on to. So even if I am going to fall short of the goal it helps me keep going.

I do NOT think you should do the 2K the weekend before Boston but that may be just me thinking how much it takes out of me to do one--and then there's Rick doing one every week. YOu will have to weigh the benefit of the confidence inspired by completing a 2K against the recovery time needed from it if you really do the 2K all out. If you do one, maybe it should not be all out or even at your hoped for Boston pace, but just fast enough to rebuild your faith.

Don't beat yourself with an ugly stick--you will overcome this and you will row a fantastic race in Boston. You have done a great job training and you are ready.

Here's an idea I like: the word competiton comes from I think Greek words that mean "to come together to bring out the best." That is what the races are for, to bring out the best in all of us. I want to see your best--so let go of this, trust your training, rest properly, and on race day, you will have a successful race!

Bob S. · Post by **Bob S.** » February 11th, 2008, 12:36 am

Deborah,

Stumble and fall is often part of the game. Those that succeed are the ones that pick themselves and go at it again.

Did you have a cox? Having an experienced cox would help a lot to keep you focused on your game plan and also ward off distractions like you experienced at the start. My best results in races have always been when I had someone to do that, especially at Long Beach, both this last time and two years ago when I first broke through the 8 minute barrier. Rob's voice behind kept me focused on what I needed to do, as well as gently reminding me to breath (yes, I needed to be told that), to sit up straighter, and to reach out. We think that we know these things well, but the blood is going to the body, not the brain, and it helps to have another brain doing the directing.

Bob S.

Nosmo · Post by **Nosmo** » February 11th, 2008, 1:12 am

Deborah,
I loged on just to see how the races went Yours, Rangers, Obama's and Clinton's. Looks like Obama did really well. (range was at least 7 seconds behind were he said he would be)
Tough race. Sorry to hear it didn't go well for you. I could write 50 pages about bad races I've had. Some days you just can't perform. This is going to be hard to believe but it is really true: A race is only a failure if you don't learn anything.
Don't be too hard on your self. You are really pretty new to this, and there is a lot to learn, both about the sport and yourself.
Every race you do think about what you did right and what you did wrong. Try to avoid making the same mistake twice. Use this as motivation to do it better next time. Race well in Boston and today will not seem significant.
In every PR or really good erg time I've done, I've wondered half way through it if I could finish at that pace. You should be wondering at 1000 or 1300m if you can finish. Sometimes you realize you really are going too fast. At that point if you just slow down a little, you can salvage a decent if not really good time. IF you slowed down a couple of seconds for 250 or even 500m, you would have finished in a 7:17 or 7:18, or even faster because you may then have done a good sprint.
IF you use today as motivation to finish every race in the future it will be well worth it. (Edit: and remember training is not racing--there are often good reasons to abandon a workout.)

Yankeerunner · Post by **Yankeerunner** » February 11th, 2008, 8:53 am

Deborah, obviously my glass of wine for you didn't help. Not much for me to add since the others have done so well, just an echo that we all have bad days. As Carla says, I'd tend to do the race next weekend as you are planning to do, probably at a little slower pace just to be assured of getting a solid time and rebuild some confidence. You have to do whatever it takes to assure yourself that you can do well at Boston.

For me today it was another 5km at 5:30am at the Hard Nock's Gym:

2046m 10:00.0 2:26.6 20spm (warmup)
5000m 22:24.2 2:14.4 22spm
2041m 10:00.0 2:26.9 20spm (cooldown)

S10MPS, 125df, XM Satellite radio blaring away. The morning didn't start well with Wicked Felina's (the Black Thunderbird) doors being frozen shut from the weekend snow & rain followed by a rapid drop in temperature. Fortunately Denise's girly Jetta had been used enough that those doors opened and I borrowed her car. On the erg I felt just blah, but I might have been subconciously holding back for the scheduled hard effort after the workday later.
splits:
1000m 2:16.7 22spm
2000m 2:16.1 22spm
3000m 2:15.1 22spm
4000m 2:12.4 23spm
5000m 2:11.8 23spm

TomR · Post by **TomR** » February 11th, 2008, 10:31 am

Rowmaniac wrote:I think I might have put just a bit too much pressure on myself.

Sounds possible.

When you race next weekend, shoot for 7.20ish (no faster). Finish a 2k in a solid time, to build confidence. The important race is a week later. Get one done and then look to improve.