Day 61 - Challenge Series 10K

The 10K TT tonight for us both.

Anita was up first (As is increasing becoming her modus operandi), did a nice 2K warm up then began.

From the 2nd 1K it became clear she wasn't as comfortable as she could be, with the av. pace jumping up and down. She was also up at 25spm, which was high for her, later she said she just didn't have it in the arms. Her pace on the monitor every 2K was as follows:

8K left - 2:13.7 25spm
6K - Same
4K - Same
2K - 2:14.2 25spm

She dropped to 2:14.5 before she upped the ante to drag it back to a really superb 2:13.9, or 44:38.3 overall.

This is a 1:51.3 improvement on her previous PB, or 5.6s/500m!!!!!!! Astonishing how quick Anita has got in a short space of time.

I then followed, and after a 5 minute warm up I started on the 10k road of pain :)


8K left - 1:48.8 26spm
6K - 1:49.3 25spm
4K - 1:49.7 27spm.
2K - 1:49.9 27spm

I felt strong with 1.5k left, so racked it up, finishing the last 3 500m sectors in 1:48.3, 1:47.7 and 1:42.6 to finish in 36:27 dead, 1:49.4 @ 27spm, 1:56.3 better than my previous PB, or 5.8s/500m. I'm reallly really chuffed that I maintained no lower than 1:50.9/500m for 10k, aand it's a really big landmark for me, going sub 36:30 at 126kg/6' 0.5"!!!!!!!!!

4 x 20' tomorrow, when I'll update the overall distance done (will be over 2MM between us since 3rd Oct 2011!!!!!)

Day 60 - Recovery Row

Just 2 x 30' 4R tonight at 'a comfortable pace' :)

As a test I put the Living Language French series on both our MP3 players tonight, as we are in Valais (French-Speaking Switzerland) for our honeymoon, and we could both brush up a little bit on our conversational French. I've now re-affirmed how important Music is during a row, as it was really difficult to concentrate on the language course and not feel the aches and pains of what was a recovery row. I'll be listening to just Music from now on :)

Anita rowed out 2 2:26-pace 30 minute pieces, and felt the same about the French Course as I did. She found it quite a difficult one tonight, as if her body was still getting over the 37.5km on Saturday.

I did a 2:01.7, and was really suffereing on the 2nd when I decided to start putting in some really quick minutes every other minute, starting at 1:50 a few times, then 1:48's, a 1:45, a 1:40 then for the last 45 seconds sub 1:30, giving me a 1:59.0 average. I felt I had to do this to tell my body that I don't care how it feels, I'm in charge and I will do what I want :)

Anita: 12330m
Andy: 14959m
Cumulative: 1962359m (1219.6 miles)

The Journey:
Start - Topnotch Gym Colchester CO4 9ES
Finish - Seewalchen am Attersee, Austria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seewalchen_am_Attersee

Day 59 - Endurance, Endurance, Endurance

The 2nd 3-hour session this week, 4 x 45', 5R (First two Intervals), 8R (Last Interval).

Due to the Virtual Team Challenge on the Concept2 website (http://log.concept2.com/team/teamStandings.asp?re_index=48&group=team) Anita announced she wanted to do over 100km this week. She got her wish :)

1. 9256m @ 2:25.8
2. 9287m @ 2:25.4
3. 9513m @ 2:21.9!
4. 9476m @ 2:22.5 (Apparently this was a Cool Down :))
Total - 37532m @ 2:23.9

Anita munched this one up, with enough energy over to go quite a bit faster in the 2nd half than the first. The 100km is becoming less and less daunting for her. It will hurt, but it will be manageable.

My intervals were as follows:

1. 11119m @ 2:01.4
2. 11137m @ 2:01.2
3. 11113m @ 2:01.5
4. 10332m @ 2:10.7 (A proper Cool Down! To be honest I couldn't have done much more)

Total - 43701m @ 2:03.6

The first 3 intervals weren't too bad, but the last (Admittedly a Cool-Down) hurt a lot, my bum and high up my thighs the worse of all, prompting me with 20 mins left to get rid of my seat pads. This helped somewhat.

Nutrition wise we do this on a banana, gel pack and glucose tablet each. We'll need something more substantial on the 100km, but not too much more. Estimates of the Calorie expenditure today are 3500 for me and 2250 for Anita!!!

Cumulative total today - 81233m

Cumulative Total since 3rd Oct - 1935070m (1202.65 miles)

The Journey:

Start - Topnotch Gym Colchester CO4 9ES

Finish - Warte am See, Austria http://www.restauranttester.at/landzeit-autobahn-restaurant-mondsee-panoramahotel-mondsee.html

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 56 - Back to work, Back to reality

2 lots of 30' tonight - a 10'/20' split for the first 30 and a flat pace for the second, 2:14/2:24 on the 1st 30' for Anita, 1:51/2:00 for me, with a free rein on the last 30.

We both found this very hard tonight. The gym was busy with New Year Resolutionists (Maybe a new religion???) and as such felt very warm. With 37k/44k in our muscles from yesterday the 10 minutes at the hard pace felt very difficult (But we both completed it) followed by the 20 slower minutes, which still felt harder than it should have done.

Anita went further in total in the 2nd 30 minutes than the 1st!! a 2:18 av v 2:19, Where we row there are 3 Model C C2's, and because of this we occasionally get people rowing beside us. It's pretty obvious most of them have never had instruction on technique (The amount of women rowing in the 3:00 range on 10 damper is quite scary). I think it will be beneficial to all if we approach the trainers at our gym and offer our services :)

I attempted to go out quite hard on the 2nd 30' but just didn't have it, and as such used it as a cool down (1:58 v 1:56 on the 1st 30) - I've got a nice achy feeling going on :)

Anita: 12973m
Andy: 15330m

Cumulative Total: 1815428m (1128.3 miles)

The Journey:
Start - Topnotch Gym, Colchester CO4 9ES
Finish - Raubling, Bavaria, Germany http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raubling

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