Day 52 - HM

A Half Marathon 21097m for us both today, followed by a lovely afternoon and evening of films, food and Poker with some amazing people in Colchester.

First - Anita came in at a 2:17 average for her first ever HM - 1:36.22.6, good for 10th on the 40-49 Hvt Ladies World Rankings this season!!!! This was at an average 23 spm. She was steady at 2:16.9 until 5k left, slipped very slightly to 2:17.2 before she muscled it down to 2:17.0 at the end. She came out of this fairly unscathed, with only the normal aches and pains. Amazing Rowing!!!

Her PB graph (plot v 500m split times) looks like this:

Her HM pace is faster than everything after and including her 30 minute pace!!!! There's plenty of PB's to be set in April and updating of her Nonathlon Score (www.nonathlon.com)

I came in with a 1:54.1 average for my second HM ever - 1:20:14.6, previous PB 1:24:01.6 so a good 3:47 quicker than my first HM over 3 years ago. I averaged 1:52.9 until 5k left, when my bugbear the numb bum came into play and made things really uncomfortable. Constant re-positioning really effected everything, and I was a little bit annoyed as I'd already done all the hard work for a sub 1:19 time.

As it is I am really pleased with it, as I'm following the same progression as Anita with the times:

 Same for me, faster HM than everything from 30 minutes inclusive.

Now for the Full Marathon in 2 weeks, with a couple of different 5k pieces in between and some easy taper sessions in weeks 13 and 14 of the Eddie Fletcher Plan.

Anita: 21097m
Andy: 21097m
Cumulative: 1657969m (1030 miles)

The Journey:

Start - Topnotch Gym Colchester CO4 9ES
Finish - Gschnallenhöfe, Imst, Austria http://www.panoramio.com/photo/55816474

Day 8 - 80 minutes, really feeling it now...........

4 lots of 20 minutes with only 2 minutes of rest between them today.

Anita's 20's - 2:26/500m, 2:19, 2:22, 2:26
Andy's 20's - 2:02/500m, 1:56, 1:59, 2:02

Anita did amazingly well today, far better than last Wednesday which was only 3 20 minute intervals.

I hit all the targets today, due in the main to upping the stroke rate when my arms couldn't pull hard enough. Felt really quite good at 29/30/31 strokes per minute for the last 2 intervals, so fell back on cardio fitness.

Anita - 16630m
Andy - 20058m (1039m to HM)

Cumulative Total - 235897m (146.6 miles)

As a Journey:

Start - Topnotch Gym Colchester CO4 9ES
Finish - Coulogne, Pas-De-Calais, France