The Road To Boston 2008

macroth · Post by **macroth** » February 11th, 2008, 11:44 am

1000m warmup (some strapless, 2:00+/500m, 18-22 spm)
1000m 1:45/500m, 30 spm
1000m recovery 2:15-2:20/500m, 20spm
1000m 1:45/500m, 30 spm
1000m recovery as above
1000m 1:45, 30spm for first 500m, then gradual sprint, moving down to 1:35/500m, 30+spm
500m warm down (no straps)

Rowmaniac · Post by **Rowmaniac** » February 11th, 2008, 5:18 pm

Thank you to everyone for your support. I've taken the whole day off, realizing at a minimum I am slightly under the weather, and hope to have a solid plan for another 2K by tomorrow. Rather than row it next weekend, I may just row it cox'd by my trainer later this week so I can follow my original plan for the trial and feel good enough about Boston to go for what I really want then. First I need to feel better physically. Thanks for what you've all contributed to a better mental state.

I shall persevere!

Veronique · Post by **Veronique** » February 11th, 2008, 6:02 pm

Tough going Deborah but good to see your spirit. You've done some amazing training and you will do great in Boston no matter what.

Back felt stiff during warm-up today so I abandoned my plan for the day and did a 30' recovery row. Nice and easy at 18 spm 2:16. Just a little boring...

TomR · Post by **TomR** » February 11th, 2008, 8:30 pm

UT 1/ 10k

today--2.02.4/10,000/40.47.6
2007-2.06.8/9,465/40.00

Season's best by about 13 seconds. Could've gone a few seconds faster with devil on my tail, but She was otherwise occupied.[/list]

Yankeerunner · Post by **Yankeerunner** » February 12th, 2008, 8:31 am

Rowmaniac wrote: I shall persevere!

Atta way!

Tom, that looks positive.

Last night after jogging the 1km home from work and walking Sunny I familiarized myself with the exquisite fatigue of a 2km again, to get it mentally straight and work on such things as lactate tolerance or whatever anyone wants to call it.

2680m 12:00.0 2:14.3 24spm
2000m 07:11.8 1:48.0 34spm
2475m 12:00.0 2:27.8 18spm

47 degrees, 130df, George Thorogood & the Destroyers on the CD player. My intent was to start at the 1:48.7 pace that I averaged in the trial last Thursday, but it seemed a bit harder than expected. Yet I didn't feel any fade as I had been a couple of weeks ago when I'd get halfway, and had an even better kick than usual. Now only 1 second slower than at BIRC last November, although still over 7 seconds slower than last October just prior to ripping the back and rib. Satisfied.
splits:
0500m 1:49.1 34spm
1000m 1:49.0 33spm
1500m 1:49.2 34spm
2000m 1:44.6 36spm

Normally this morning would be my long distance day, but I'm taking off the morning session for the first time in 42 days and delaying it until tomorrow. The hard sessions are getting hard enough to warrant a bit more rest than I've been taking. Better safe than sorry.

TomR · Post by **TomR** » February 12th, 2008, 11:07 am

Yankeerunner wrote: I'm taking off the morning session for the first time in 42 days

slacker

Rowmaniac · Post by **Rowmaniac** » February 12th, 2008, 11:29 am

Rick, good move to listen to the body. But have some Meatloaf for lunch and you probably will never know the difference.

tdekoekkoek · Post by **tdekoekkoek** » February 12th, 2008, 8:25 pm

Hi All,

Sorry haven't kept up with all the posts lately. A quick report of this weekend's race. Both good news and bad. The good is that I managed to come away with first in the senior master. The bad is that I was slower than I was in Newburyport and a good 6 seconds off my target. Since my goal is to break 6:30 at Crash-Bs, I needed to be around 6:34 or 6:36 for this race. I just wasn't feeling great, and after the first few strokes I settled in on 1:37-1:38. At that point I was about 5th overall. They were running the masters and senior masters together. I felt fairly confident about finishing 2nd overall. The top-seeded guy was 39, so not in my category and he was on a 6:20 pace. But by 1200 things already weren't going my way and my splits were dropping to 1:40. By the last 500 I had moved up into 2nd overall, but soon the splits dropped to 1:45 and I just tried to hold a 10m lead over the next guy and hold on to the finish. I finished in 6:41 and change.

So now I'm trying to train more aggressively when it comes to rate and attacking the piece. I do believe in negative splitting, but I also find that when I settle into 1:39s I'm only going 27 or 28 and it's just not aggressive enough and my body tends to get tired and slouchy. As someone put it at NE2K it just takes a long time for me to uncoil! So I'm trying to sit up straighter and row a little shorter.

Now I need to go back and read everyones' posts!

Cheers,

Trevor

TomR · Post by **TomR** » February 12th, 2008, 10:47 pm

TR 6x500/2 min recover

today--1.50.8 avg
2007--1.47 approx (only 4x500)

Having trouble increasing the rate and keeping the erg from acting like a speed freak at a Cream concert. When I tried to kick home the final 100 on the final interval, you could have mistaken me for a guy riding out an earthquake.

Not sure what the remedy is.

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

Sorry you were not happy with your race results, Trevor--is training harder now, with 2 weeks to go, a good idea? Maybe you need more recovery time.

Having said that, I'm having a bad case of the heeby jeebies about how light this week's schedule is. I have decided to follow the schedule to the T--except for tomorrow. Tomorrow is my last shot at a good hard TR workout because I don't want to do a really hard session in the week right before the race. The schedule only has 2 x 3 TR and that just seems really insufficient. So I will do my best to do 4 x 3 TR tomorrow (my most hated session). Also I am doing my best to actually get enough sleep for the next couple of weeks but it's hard because I'm doing a little OT at work, I'm having to do a lot of church related volunteer things, and things are ramping up in orchestra.

11 days...but who's counting?

Rocket Roy · Post by **Rocket Roy** » February 13th, 2008, 3:48 am

TomR wrote:TR 6x500/2 min recover

today--1.50.8 avg
2007--1.47 approx (only 4x500)

Having trouble increasing the rate and keeping the erg from acting like a speed freak at a Cream concert. When I tried to kick home the final 100 on the final interval, you could have mistaken me for a guy riding out an earthquake.

Not sure what the remedy is.

Tom, I'm not sure what the answer is.......but I'm definately looking forward to watching you row at WIRC.....

seat5 · Post by **seat5** » February 13th, 2008, 9:07 am

Tom, just wear a bandanna and chaps and it will be fine.

Today I did 3 x 4 min TR instead of 2 x 3 TR. It was hard but I'm glad I did it as for some reason I feel more confident now. However it was .2 sec/500 slower over all than the last time I did the session. This time I was much more consistent--last time I was faster over the first two and then died on the 3rd. I don't know which way is better. I felt like I should have been rating higher.

1073 1:51.8/32
1073 1:51.832
1072 1:51.9/31

I started out really slow on the last one as I couldn't seem to get moving, and did a horrifying sprint at the end (1:49s) to get the average down. I felt about as bad at the end of this workout as after a real 2K. o dear o dear o dear--run away!!!!

Tomorrow is my optijional day; if I was doing a proper 5 session IP it would be some UT1, so I may do that though I am tempted to do another 7777. That might be dumb. This is the time when I wish I had a human coach.

TomR · Post by **TomR** » February 13th, 2008, 9:58 am

At what point will the training have no effect on one's ability to race? Some day soon, there won't be enough time between the training session and the race for the body to make whatever adaptations it makes to training. I'm wonder when that is. Until then, I plan to push it, but when there's no real point, I'm happy to taper.

Carla--Good work on the TR. Like you, I'm planning another run at the CTC tonight, but it won't be all out.

Yankeerunner · Post by **Yankeerunner** » February 13th, 2008, 12:28 pm

TomR wrote:
Yankeerunner wrote: I'm taking off the morning session for the first time in 42 days
slacker

Busted.

As for your question about when training is too close to racing to have an effect of improving oneself, that depends on how long and hard one has been going at it. For someone who has been training hard and consistently for the past 4 months or more we are probably already at the point where the risk of a negative effect due to training too hard is more likely than further gains in racing ability. For someone like me who has only been able to go hardish for the past six weeks a few more hard sessions may get me closer to those who have trained harder longer (at least I'm hoping so), but only because I was at a much lower point on January 1st. Even an automobile has an easier time getting from 0 to 60 than it does 60 to 120.

Trevor, tough break. It was still a good time and place, although I know that it is still disappointing somewhat when a goal has been missed. I suspect that Boston will be better for you.

Carla, why not 1000m tomorrow? For the CaroleMac Challenge? Tough to do after a 3 X 4' TR, but probably no worse than a 7777m. Besides, the CTC is supposed to be 1000m for tomorrow only.

Deborah, can there be a better day than to be eating Meatloaf while Meatloaf sings inthe background?

Last night was just ticking over, trying to leave some energy for Wednesday morning:

1703m 08:00.0 2:20.9 20spm (warmup)
5000m 20:12.6 2:01.3 25spm
1668m 08:00.0 2:23.8 19spm (cooldown)

S10MPS with the monitor covered except for meters, 46 degrees, 128df, ribs wrapped, Dwight Yoakam on the CD player. Tried to stay smooth and steady, but put a little extra effort into the end.
splits:
1000m 2:06.4 24spm
2000m 2:01.8 25spm
3000m 2:01.4 25spm
4000m 1:59.9 25spm
5000m 1:56.8 26spm

It snowed overnight, then started sleeting, then raining on it by the time I got out of bed. Started the day by shoveling off 4" of heavy, wet stuff from the sidewaks (so that the little kiddos could walk to school) and the driveway and car (so that Denise could get out and go to work--can't have the woman not working

). Then, and only then, about 45' late, I got on the erg.

01251m 0:06:00.0 2:23.8 20spm (warmup)
21000m 1:28:42.6 2:06.7 24spm
01226m 0:06:00.0 2:26.7 19spm (cooldown)

S10MPS with the monitor covered except for meters, 48 degrees, 111df, ribs wrapped, The Who Live In Boston in the DVD player. Felt a bit weary from the shoveling, so just tried to stay relaxed and feel my way along. Felt fine, and was pleasantly surprized, when I took the cover off the monitor, to see that I'd gone at a faster pace than last Friday. The shoveling apparently warmed me up better than usual.
splits:
03000m 2:12.0 23spm
06000m 2:07.9 23spm
09000m 2:06.3 24spm
12000m 2:05.7 24spm
15000m 2:04.9 24spm
18000m 2:05.9 24spm
21000m 2:04.1 24spm

Rowmaniac · Post by **Rowmaniac** » February 13th, 2008, 6:27 pm

Well, today was my big "get back on the horse" day. Unfortunately, I still have a burning and sore throat, but I was so determined to do this 2K trial that nothing would have stopped me from getting on that erg this morning.

I followed my plan pretty closely, with the exception of my final sprint which I did not do. I had to just acknowledge that I'd met my goal for today of finishing a good 2K, doing negative splits for the first three 500m pieces, and I didn't go nuts for a sprint like I would have if a) I felt 100% or b) more importantly if this were Boston. I hate to be too cautious, but there was this thought in the back of my mind that yes I need to do this darned thing but I also need to get well and need to be well in 10 days. It went fine and now I have my confidence back.

1:50.1
1:49.1
1:48.7
1:50.1

7:18.0

I followed the 2K with 45 minutes of upper body weights, which I would have gladly skipped if my trainer (who oversaw the 2K piece) wasn't insisting that we do some more work. I was really, really glad when it was all over.

Now I need a deep breath and some vitamin C. I still have confidence I can sprint and break 7:15 in Boston, but for now I am not going to play the "what if" game and go crazy with my math. I'm just going to work on getting well. Tom, I thought about what you said about being conservative on this piece and your words were in my head as I headed into the finish wondering if I was doing the right thing. Thank you. I think it was the smart thing for today.

It is warm and sunny here today and I going to sit on the deck and get some sun b/c I think maybe some Vitamin D can't hurt either. I see people outside in shorts. I just realized I will have to find the right clothes to keep me warm in Boston. I have no idea how to dress for a snowy February. Yes, I am one of those California weather idiots who only really knows one season!

I'm getting excited to meet everyone, and yes, to get this thing over with!