Irish 2017 - would rather go and lose than stay at home and wonder

So signed up for the Irish a couple of days ago in for the 1k, 2k and 500m sure why not. Had another trip to Dublin and back on Thursday so no training but Friday wanted to get something positive done and went for a horror session unfortunately a stomach cramp set in and the session came to a halt then started thinking if signing up was a mistake. Today was another day and I went in early to do a simple 30r20 aimed at 70% HRR but let it rise up to 80% by the end. Decided to then put some one minute bursts in hoping to hit 1:30 pace on r30 - well lets just say I rather enjoyed that and stretched it from two to three reps. Fairly safe to say I'll be using the power end of the spectrum come Saturday

1 minute test - 392m

Decided to see what I could do with the minute today - weekend of chores and little sleep last night - missed training this morning and sore back what better time to try it. 2 minute warm up - 15 seconds race start practice then on to it - drag 180 - erg weighted down. Went OK - complete throat burn at the end - should of got 393 really - but learned from it for next time.

Interesting fact on the short sprints

Lunchtime I only had a short session planned so decided on testing bottom end power while keeping a watchful eye on the back - basically race warm up and then a few 1 minute sprints - although I managed a low pull on Saturday of 1:08 today I couldn't get the bloody thing under 1:17 lol

So after a few different approaches - now here's the interesting bit - as I wanted to see the splits I tried a few ways to get them to show on a single one minute - but it kept defaulting to 1 min split - then I set up a variable interval of 20 seconds with no rest - having completed it I hit the button you do to get a verification code and up it popped!

At the end I went for a rate capped (36) piece - as I rowed it on ergdata again it is verified as a single piece of one minute - now during it on the changeover I saw the split flick from 1:23 to 1:16 - and although this might not make any difference over a longer row - surely on a 100m or a 1 minute it could drastically alter the result?

1 minute test (PB) - 100 metre test (x2)

Kind of prep work for the 500m on the 29th August - wanted to try the 1 minute TT and I'll be lying if I said I thought I did well on this - really thought I would break 400m - not sure why lol but went down with the intention of a fast first 100m and hold on - but for some reason I didn't get the start right (1:52 first split 1:23 second) and then just couldn't get under 1:16 pace (that I remember) but managed to sit on 1:16/1:17 for the majority of the piece. Had a few issues losing my seating which I think you can see in the video. Once finished I looked at the monitor and was pretty disappointed but at the same time this is a PB by 1m (although not sure I've ever done an all-out 1 minute test - think the 1min PB I had was "extracted" from my 500m) at the same time I was sitting pretty comfortably on 1:16/17 so I think with some work we can break that 1:18 barrier - especially if I have a audience :o)

Drag 170

After the 1 minute I thought I would test the 100m - a better start hitting 1:40's on the first stroke but still too slow and lost too much - things to work on though

30r20 70% HRR - 1min blast on the Batlogic

Well I got all excited like a kid on Xmas morning - almost literally as my Bat Logic erg system arrived - it's something I've been looking at for a while now as one of the issues I face in my technique is a lift in the heel on the drive phase which is causing other issues and I thought that the Bat Logic might help me correct this. Also in a lot of recent power and speed ergs I've found that my feet come lose from my shoes and even the shoes come lose from the straps - so figured this system would help with that - needless to say even though I'm not 100% I put the various bits together at my desk this morning and then at lunch went down to try it out :o)

 So attached the ergadapter to the erg which was pretty quick once I got my brain in gear and then tried the shoes in - click - click and I'm fixed in 

So the session was a 30r20 and I found it a little odd to start with - feels like my feet where slightly wider than the norm but soon adapted to that and from the get go I discovered that I was able to get more power outage - or at least it felt that way - will obviously need a few more sessions to be sure - but this is my strongest 30r20 70% HRR erg for some time - in fact looking it up the last time I went faster on this piece was in October 2014 with 8298m - but that was also the month I broke my 2k PB so looking promising indeed. Now I will admit to having got blisters :o( but then I always get them with new shoes no matter what it seems. Looking forward to getting some hard training in with this :o)

 More info on the system here http://www.batlogic.com.au/

I thought I'd see how it held up to some power - not bad at all - no feeling of the feet about to fly out or the shoes coming unstuck like I do with just the gym shoes and straps

30r20 70% HRR - plus a minute - signs of improvement?

Well I think there is a small sign of improvement in todays row - granted I didn't row before work (dropping the dogs to kennels as going on holiday tomorrow) but this is arguably the strongest (of the HRR ergs) since I was sick in the start of November - on the 5th November I managed 8,222m with 1:49.4 but that was pushing a ave HR of 143 (and that's off the PM4 - so no doubt it was slightly higher). After finishing it I dialled up the minute rows and completed one at 1:24.0 pace (357m) but as my butt was showing signs of it's wear and tear from the three half marathons in the week I pulled the plug without starting the second one as I'm sitting on a place tomorrow I need what remains of my skin to stay there lol

40r20 70% 1min pump

40r20 HRR 70% before work this morning and a 1min pump - used "Boatcoach" on my phone rather than ergdata - seems that it will collect data if i "upgrade" so might look at that. the 40min seemed a better pace than late although still miles off where I was. The minute felt nice and controlled :o)

Then as I had time I pumped a 1 minute out 

30r18 65% HRR plus 1min

Lunch today - 30r18 65% HRR - plus 1min @1:27.0
Will probably row tomorrow at work but have to leave early to get flight - also need to drop dogs of before work so we'll see.

40r20 70% HRR plus 1min 1:29.0

Q emailed me to say:

"Keep the intensity at a maximum of 65-70% for the next 48 hrs, keep the distances low, but you can put in a single 1’ or two at 1:29 if you fancy it"

This was after this morning's row - so played it again 40r20 70% HRR and eaked out a few more meters and then did the 1min - felt a lot tougher than that should for me - god am I getting old lol

My blog on the 9 records in 24 hours has now had 329 hits - was at 188 before it went on the row2k website - thanks guys :o)