Days 84 & 85 - A new era......

Firstly Monday - A different workout as I received my new PM3 retrofitted monitor before work, ready to fit to my Model C rower.

Once I'd fitted it (With the help of a hacksaw, as one of the bolts holding the PM2+ arm to the rower had slipped a thread) I also purchased a RowPro account for Anita and me (http://www.digitalrowing.com/Oarbits/index.htm).

Then after a bit of configuration Anita christened the new Monitor with a 20' piece, placed online as a test.
She rowed 4593 @ 2:10.6 25spm

RowPro allows a really analytic approach to exercise which I'm sure I will find motivating, and hopefully it will help Anita too going forward. The picture above shows a really strong piece, 2:13 1st half, 2:08 2nd half with a 2:01 last minute!! 25spm is quite high for Anita to, so it was very strong, and a brilliant piece to do after a week of having a very nasty cold.

I did a 500m test piece, messed it up by going out too hard (1:17-1:20) and ended up with a 1:28.2 (0.1s off a PB) - 1:23 paced is a possibility, but will hurt a lot:

Tonight we both did the C2 Team Challenge for the month - 5,4,3,2,1,2,3,4,5 minute pyramid, 30" rest per interval - 29 minutes total rowing at a restricted 20spm.

I went first - started hard at 1:48.5 for the first 5 minutes, settled into a pace, but suffered in the last 9 minutes (4 & 5 min intervals), finishing with 7830m @ 1:51.1. Quite pleased overall on what was my first variable interval training session, and also my first restricted stroke rate session (Same for Anita). Quite a tough one.

Anita then went and smashed it up - 6752m @ 2:08.9. Putting this into perspective my best 30' piece is at 1:50, so tonights piece was 1.1s below my 30' PB. This was 6.1s BELOW Anita's 30' PB (2:15.1). This may be a bit false (I reckon it should be about 2:12) but tonight's piece would still be 3s below this even.

She followed the pyramid with her pace, doing a 2:02 for the minute in the middle before finishing the last 2 intervals in the 2:11's - Very Strong rowing indeed.

Anita : 11544m (4593 & 6951)

Andy: 8700m (500 & 8200)

Cumulative: 2994429m (1861 miles) - 3MM tomorrow evening :)

The Journey:

Start: Topnotch Health Club Colchester CO4 9ES,

Finish: Zaleska Wola, Poland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaleska_Wola,_Podkarpackie_Voivodeship)