Day 67 - Feeling Really Good :)

4 x 20' tonight, with a quasi-plan which Anita, in her infinite wisdom, chose to ignore, and go faster than :)

Anita:
2:23, 2:15, 2:18, 2:21
17245m total

Me:
1:59, 1:53, 1:56, 1:59
20576m total

If we had considered the splits we did tonight (with relative ease) we would have baulked at it. Anita felt 20 minutes at these splits are easy, and she was surprised at the strength and power she had in her arms. I would never have thought I could hold 1:52 for 15 minutes (I let it bleed down to 1:53 in the last 5) as easily as I did at 25spm. We are reaping the fitness rewards of all the training we have done to this point :)

A controlled PB 30' tomorrow (2:16.0 for Anita, 1:52.5 for the 8k for me) before the FM on Saturday :)

Total Cumulative Metres - 2259706m (1404.4 miles)

The Journey:
Start - Topnotch Gym, Colchester CO4 9ES
Finish - Schwechat, Austria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_International_Airport

Day 58 - Self-Harm Friday

Our first attempt at the C2CTC January Challenge - 7 x 777m with 70s Rest per Interval.

Anita was up first after a 5 minute warm-up. Her times were as follows:

1. 3:14.4 @ 2:05.1 23spm
2. 3:15.0 @ 2:05.5 23
3. 3:14.0 @ 2:04.8 23
4. 3:14.4 @ 2:05.1 23
5. 3:17.1 @ 2:06.9 24
6. 3:17.1 @ 2:06.8(!) 24
7. 3:12.2 @ 2:03.7 25
Overall - 22:44.2 @ 2:05.4


She did amazingly well with this challenge, her first 4 intervals were very strong. She suffered a bit in 5 and 6, then brought it home brilliantly in an split that was 0.8s better than last month.

My times were as follows:

1. 2:38.2 @ 1:41.8
2. 2:37.3 @ 1:41.1
3. 2:36.7 @ 1:40.8
4. 2:39.4 @ 1:42.6
5. 2:41.0 @ 1:43.6
6. 2:40.9 @ 1:43.5
7. 2:38.1 @ 1:41.8
Overall - 18:31.5 @ 1:42.2



Its quite a strange challenge. It starts to really hurt in Interval 5, where it's a case of hanging on. Interval 7 is very much a case of 'emptying the tank'. My final split was 1.5s/500m better than last month.

Tomorrow - 4 x 45' - 3hrs and 44k for me, 37k for Anita, for the 2nd time this week :)

Day 57 - Tough for me, a breeze for Anita :)

2 lots of 30' tonight, 5R - 2:24 for Anita, 2:00 for me.

Tonight was tough....Really Tough. The first interval wiped me out, I felt a complete lack of energy, leaden arms and light-headedness. I lowered the drag from 140 to 110 for the 2nd interval, started off very weakly (2:08), and a light came on in my head - I covered the monitor with my towel.

From then on I just rowed. My heart rate came back down, and I started to push it on a bit, and felt the stroke rise a tad. I finished and unveiled the monitor - 1:59.6 for 7524m, 21m further than the 1st interval. It really shows rowing is mind over matter.

Anita felt comfortable with her 2:24 pace for the 2 intervals, which bodes well for the rest of the month :)

Anita - 12504m
Andy - 15027m

Cumulative - 1842959m (1145.4 miles)

The Journey:
Start - Topnotch Gym Colchester CO4 9ES
Finish - Bernau-am-Chiemsee, Germany http://www.bernau-am-chiemsee.de/de/index

Day 50 - Tough, but worth it!

4 lots of 15' 4R tonight, 6'/9' split, 2:14/2:24 Anita, 1:51/2:00 for me.

The 1st interval went smoothly, the power was there and the heart rate stayed nice and controlled. After that however it got very tough - the spm for my pieces were 23, 24, 25 and 26, but on the last I tried to maintain a decent spm purely as a test, and hit the last minute at 1:40 splits. It really feels I've fallen off my peak with only 4 sessions in the last 2 weeks (After 5 sessions per week for the 9 weeks beforehand) but I'm set on getting back to that peak ASAP, with a cheeky little HM on Christmas Eve.

Anita completed all the intervals but has said the same thing - It was really tough. A decent percentage of Erging is definitely in the head, and we both are prepared to tough it out to get to where we need to be - 100km in a single session :)

Anita - 13044m
Andy - 15673m
Cumulative - 1587544m (986.7 miles)

The Journey:
Start - Topnotch Gym Colchester - CO4 9ES
Finish - Braz, Vorarlberg, Austria http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq_a28r8loA

Day 47 - Ending a strange week with some endurance

After a very busy week for us both (2 Dentist Appointments, 1 Hospital Appointment, 2 Christmas Meals) we didn't get the chance to row on Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday, so i decided today was a good day to really test ourselves over a nice long row:

4 x 40', 4R, planned 3 x 2:27 for Anita, 3 x 2:03 for me and a low-as-you-can last interval, between 2hrs and 2hrs 40 of rowing to really test where we are.

After some really good advice from Stu Thorp and Trevor de Koekkoek of the C2Tweetcrew regarding nutrition and hydration for the row we had as much Porridge we could eat (Not that much in the end, Porridge always does that to me), with a Banana, Energy Gel and Glucose Tablet during the row.

I found the first 3 intervals (up to 2 hours) fairly uneventful, apart from a slight numb bum (had the C2 seat pad and a Towel on the seat today), then stepped it up for a 1:57 average, passing 10k at 39:05 in the last interval, giving me a grand total of 39529m for the session.

Now to Ms Wells - Again the first 3 intervals were unremarkable, with just slight aches and pains but nothing special. Onto the last 40 minutes, where Anita rowed a 2:17.0!!! Putting this into perspective, rowing between 2 hours and 2 hours 40 minutes her av/500m against a few of her current PB's:

5k PB 2:16.6 (+0.4s/500m v today's last interval)
6k PB 2:16.1 (+0.9s)
30' PB 2:17.4 (-0.4s!!!)
10k PB 2:19.5 (-2.5s, if she'd rowed for another c. 6 minutes!!!!!!!)

Absolutely amazing! She is a complete rowing monster with amazing mental toughness. 33261m for her for the session

Plus she also passed 1MM lifetime in her 3rd interval today!! And we together passed 1.5MM since we started this plan on 3rd Oct.

Next week - Back to normal with the hard week of the last Eddie Fletcher cycle, plus 4 x 45' on Saturday for our first 3hr row :)

Anita: 33261m
Andy: 39529m

Cumulative: 1504614m (935.12 miles)

The Journey:
Start: Topnotch Gym, Colchester CO4 9ES
Finish: Rietli, Muhlehorn, Switzerland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BChlehorn

Day 46 - Stepping it up again :)

2 lots of 40 minutes today, 2:27 for Anita, 2:03 for me, 4R

Some interesting physiological differences today for me - In the last 20 minutes I actually started to get cold!!! I sweated a bit less than usual tonight, but definitely took on as much liquid during both the day and the workout as I usually do.

Yesterday was a pretty protein-rich day, having been to the famous Company Shed in West Mersea (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2007/sep/23/foodanddrink.restaurants) with our close friend-down-from-London Beth, her partner Michelle and their crazy Staffy Chana. The seafood there is simple and amazing, and after a 3 mile walk it really hit the spot :) I just wonder if the visit affected me today (Though performance-wise I felt fine)

Anita has achy arms this evening - She was rowing at 18-20 spm, but it was only afterwards that she started to feel it.

We've a very busy week this week, with both of us at Christmas Parties on Friday, so Saturday is now planned to be 40 min WU 2:27 Anita, 2:03 me, 4 x 15 intervals 7'/8' split 2:14/2:24 Anita, 1:51/2:00 me, 40 min CD 2:27 Anita, 2:03 me - Anita will be around 34km, 40.6km for me :)

Also nice to see this evening 11 c2tweeters are on the Holiday Challenge Honour Board :)

Anita: 16331m
Andy: 19519m

Cumulative: 1431824m (889.9 miles)

The Journey:
Start - Topnotch Gym, Colchester CO4 9ES
Finish - Petersort, Morschach, Switzerland - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morschach