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 55 - New Year, Same Style - Endurance

As we had some time today we decided to go for 4 x 45' 5R, 2:27, 2:25, 2:23 and a warm down for Anita, 2:03, 2:01, 1:59 and a warm down for me.

Anita did amazingly well, showing how strong she is over long distances, even finishing on her 'warm down' at a 1s/500m quicker than her first interval (2:26 v 2:27). She ended up at 37.1k rowed in 3hrs (3hrs 17 mins with rest breaks) meaning a sub-3:40 Full Marathon is very much on the cards in a couple of weeks :)

I had the usual numb-bum issues in the last 15 minutes of each interval, but after the energy gel we both had during the 2nd rest break I felt pretty good, until 20 minutes left where I lost a lot of energy, and had to fight to get the interval finished in the 1:59 av. split. I finished with 43.6k, so would have gone through the Marathon in about 3:10 with breaks.

It all bodes well for the half marathon we are doing on Saturday, and the Full Marathon in 2 weeks, all good metres towards our ultimate goal of 100k in one session :)

There is also a Virtual Team Challenge on the Concept2 website for teams for the whole of January, so we added 81k to our teams total, C2TweetCrew.

Anita - 37160m
Andy - 43636m

Cumulative - 1787125m (1110.7 miles)

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

Days 53 & 54 - A Tale of Two Challenges

After the Half Marathon jolity on Christmas Eve the plan was to do the C2CTC 5k downhill (2k,1.5k,1k,500m each with 1R), the C2UK Challenge Series 5K and a couple of gym sessions this week, but due to general levels of illness (Anita has been fighting off a fever for the past 4 days) on the 2 Challenges have been done - Total 10k each this week.

Firstly the C2CTC (Concept2 Cross Team Challenge) where Anita and I compete for C2TweetCrew.

Anita went first and set some very good times (Though she didn't see it that way):

2K - 8:23.8 PB (Previous PB 8:35) - 2:06.0 Av
1.5K - 6:18.9 - 2:06.3 Av
1K - 4:17.5 SB - 2:08.8 Av
500m - 2:01.9
Total - 21:02.1

She hadn't been feeling particularly well, and suffered a bit from a runaway heart rate during what is a particularly nasty challenge.

Me:

2K - 6:51.0 PB (Previous PB 6:56.5) - 1:42.7 Av
1.5K - 5:15.4 - 1:45.1 Av
1K - 3:32.0 SB - 1:46.0 Av
500m - 1:38.2
Total - 17:16.6

I lost it in the arms (I haven't done enough metres this month) from 500m into the 1.5k and struggled to keep the time respectable.

Currently we are both in the 2nd C2TC boat for December.

Onto earlier today - the 5K for the C2UK Challenge Series.

I went first and set a 17:53.9 PB (1:47.4), previous best 18:29.7. I feel a bit disappointed as my November Challenge Series of 6344m was at 1:47.6, so I wanted at 1:46 av - again not enough metres this month, which I plan to remedy in January for the Virtual Team Challenge (Rack up as many metres as possible in January for your team)

Anita then set an amazing 21:39.2 PB (2:09.9), Previous PB 22:46.4 (2:16.6)!!!!!!!! She is much happier when she can maintain her HR, and indeed she was at 2:11.5 at halfway and Neg-Splited her way to a sub 2:10 average, which is a massive milestone.

We may or may not retry the C2CTC tomorrow AM, but in the PM I'm going for a dip in the River Stour (Top of Essex) with a few mad friends, current water Temp 10C, but the ambient temp tomorrow should be 12C - It could be a lot worse on December 31st at 52N :)

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=Wrabness&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1366&bih=643&ion=1&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x47d974abf5b46aad:0x167e8ebc38f87fc7,Wrabness,+Essex&gl=uk&ei=wET-Tr6-L5D48QO9hYCyAQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=2&ved=0CD4Q8gEwAQ

Cumulative Metres since 3rd October: 1706329m (1060.5 miles)

The Journey:

Start - Topnotch Gym Colchester CO4 9ES
Finish - Völs, Tyrol, Austria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%B6ls,_Tyrol

Day 44 - End of a long week

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

Both of us have had a long tiring week this week, with early starts (5am for me) and some late evenings, and as such tonight was quite difficult.

I felt the lack of energy tonight, with the 6' at 1:51 4 times feeling tough at times. I try to lose myself in something at that point, either music or whatever is going on around me at the gym at the time.

We both hit all our targets, but Anita felt it as well tonight.

Anita: 12969m
Andy: 15629m

Cumulative: 1369086m (850.9 miles)

The Journey:
Start: Topnotch Gym, Colchester, Essex, CO4 9ES
Finish: Oberalpenstafel, Oberwald, Switzerland http://www.summitpost.org/ski-route/162566

Day 42 - Anita strays to a PB.....

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

Not particularly enjoyable for me tonight as I felt a lack of energy, but it was still nice after work to be able to get on the erg and row. I hit all the targets, but again the 3rd interval felt the most difficult (Psychological more than anything else now - still got an interval left to do at that point).

Anita however is going from strength to strength, and now lets herself have a blow out on the last interval of the 4-interval days. Tonight she broke her 15 minute PB (was a single piece 3375m (2:13.4), now 3402 (2:12.3)) ON THE 4TH OF 4 INTERVALS!!!!!

Obviously I had to tell her off for straying from the plan afterwards :)

Anita: 13184m
Andy: 15639m

Cumulative: 1310657m (814.6 miles)

The Journey:
Start: Topnotch Gym, Colchester, Essex, England CO4 9ES
Finish: Brigerbad, Brig-Glis, Valais, Switzerland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brig,_Switzerland

Day 41 - The Calm after the storm :)

2 lots of 30 mins tonight, 2:27 for Anita, 2:03 for me, 3R (1s/500m quicker than the last 4 weeks).

After yesterday's 6344m blast today was a nice sedate hour of UT1/2 intensity rowing. Possibly because yesterday was such a landmark it felt a lot easier than ever before, for the both of us, and that an hour is a bit of a cheat :) Anita says she feels like she should be doing more, but I'm of the ilk that Eddie Fletcher knows what he's doing, and though I've modified the plan slightly (Up the pace by 1s/500m on all pieces every 4 weeks) I don't want to diverge from it - It's produced some pretty phenomenal results so far at relatively short distances :)

Anita: 12249m
Andy: 14639m

Cumulative (Since 3rd Oct): 1281834m (796.7 miles)

The Journey:
Start - Topnotch Gym, Colchester CO11 2TR
Finish - L'Ermitage, Loèche, Switzerland