not a good day on the erg ...

5k warm up - felt OK but the main piece ... well ... ye that didn't go well at all - 1250 set up - wanted to try a race start on the PM (error no1) also my usual "music phone" hadn't charged up so had to use a different one with different music (error no2) which didn't seem to be as loud and meant I could really hear my breathing (error no3) kept thinking about what James said above lol had the splits set to 125 and for some reason decided to change my count (normally I count the strokes I take for 30 seconds so eg count down from 16 to do 32spm) (error no4)

So target wise I went with 25 sub 1:30 then settle to 1:31 - but as I found the 1:32's coming in and I couldn't work out where I was in relation to the piece and basically it was a mental drop out - I tried another 4 times and got no further than 500m on any of them.

Bit of a confidence boost for a nice change - 1250m race start and 250m race finish

Firstly this morning I managed to get into work early enough to do a 40r20 70% HRR which was steady - not sure the HR strap is picking up properly as it was jumping all over the place - but meters done.

At lunchtime I wanted to do 1250m at race pace/rate - usually these types of sessions fall apart with me - today I was tired and went down with a headache ...

hmm - that actually went quite well - that is a worry! 1250m on 1:32's then 500m paddle and finish with sub 1:30 controlled pace - might be closer to PB pace than I thought

note there was no "heroics" ie I wasn't thumping the pace at the end of the 1250's nor at the end of the 2k - all very controlled

1by1250m

Back to training today (aware I haven't blogged my Euro Open Experience but literally haven't had time yet) so today was down as 3by1250 with 8min rest - but due to weekend racing/travel - late night sorting things last night - early start today (managed a 40r20 before work 70% HRR)

and the fact I have a very long day with very early start tomorrow I only planned on doing one 1250 (oh also have the Irish Champs on Sat!) although I figured if i got through it in good stead I would do a second (as you can see from the title that didn't happen) 5k race warm up done I set the session on the monitor only to find a fellow gym member had decided to do some swiss ball work about an inch from the back of the rail (ok maybe 2 inches) waited a minute to see if they shifted. They didn't - so I started - now I had felt pretty good in the warm up but after a few hundred meters I found myself struggling to hold pace - I was actually going to fast - so I backed off - then I was going to slow and that culminated with a HD

hmmmm that's not good so I dialled in a 1k but noticed my HR strap had dropped connection so after messing about with that for about 5 minutes I said "sod it" and put the 1250m back in - get through no matter what the pace - and that's what I did. Target was 1:32 and I did my best to hit that - every time I saw a 1:33 I pushed a little harder - noticed about midway my stroke length was shortening to about 1.48m so with the pace going the wrong way I was determined to put the push on without being ridiculous and although I wasn't able to hit 1:32.0 I was able to control it a lot better. Saying that the second rep was definitely not on and I now have a lovely erg cough!

a gentle nod in the direction of Sundays race - 1250m

haven't really taken any sessions in particular aimed at the race on Sunday other than the 6by1min - 4by750 - and today Q requested the following

1x1250m at 1:30, to be done on Thursday.
The 1250m will feel ok for 400m, then it will feel dreadful. You need to fight it - your body will play tricks with your mind telling it that it cannot cope. However it can and it needs to be shown that. 

God me nerves leading up to it - about an hour before I was almost shaking - fight or flight time! Went down for the fight - race warm up done and off I set - got to 400m and it wasn't that bad to be honest - I was geared up for mind v body but didn't need the ammunition - although I slowed a tad on the final split that's cos I dropped the last stroke as counted wrong lol

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