2k r28 1:35/36 target - tough couple of days

Interview yesterday followed by phone call to say Mrs was in hospital for observation (she's pregnant at 32 weeks currently and for those who may not know our baby boy Louis was delivered still born last July after finding out in May he had Edwards Syndrome) but all OK with this baby so far and Mrs was let loose to cause havoc this afternoon lol first port of call was dressing our little girl (aged 4) for her school Halloween party which was followed by McDonalds and washing all the face paint off then getting her to bed and walking the dogs.. So 10pm - no rowing for two days - a day helping the father in law paint tomorrow so not likely I'll want to row to hard if at all tomorrow.... also have a feeling a cold is brewing... mainly due to the onset of runny nose and sore throat ... I could have been a detective!!

So what to do... I had one of those songs in my head about basically not sitting about and regretting what you could have done - so with a target of 1:35/36 at strict rate 28 I got changed and headed to the shed (making sure Mrs and daughter sound asleep) got the warm up done and showing a final split HR of 168 where it normally is 160 bpm I knew there was more evidence of a bug in the system. So off I set listening to suicide squad album and concentrating on the rate - unfortunately a lapse of concentration in the top end of the final 1k let that drop to 27 spm and that basically cost me the sub 6:20 - (176 strokes in total 177 strokes would have been 28 spm and that one stroke would be enough to drop that pace under 1:35) still I was at the top end of my target so walked away satisfied.


HR Max 177
TE 2.6

2k test - well all the other boys (and girls) are doing them .....

So with the Irish provincials last weekend and the Welsh this weekend I was feeling left out of the 2k world :lol: I also need to get used to these little beasts again after a while away - in fact I haven't rowed a 2k TT since Boston - and that didn't end well at all at all prior to that I managed a 6:12.1 in the Euro championships in January 2015 - so yes definitely time to start getting used to them and putting a few fears to bed from Boston. I was hoping to get under 6:30 so the target from the start was 1:37.5 pace and rate 28 (as I have no race prep work done i knew my breathing would be laboured) race warm up completed and set the 2k with 250m splits and off we set.

As expected the body wanted to accelerate more than I'd planned so needed to get control of the pace and managed to get into a decent rhtyhm also as expected the breathing became heavy and this continued for the piece - in fact the breathing was more of a hindrance than legs or heart so will be needed to be worked on before any thoughts of racing are entertained. I planned on lifting the pace and rate come the last 500m and was happily relieved to find I was able to do this reasonably comfortably - sitting sub 1:30 for the majority of the last 300m.

So all in all a good session - yes I'm 24 seconds off sub6 - and yes I rowed 3 out of 4 2k's with 5 minute rest faster than this back in June 2014 (link) but there again - 3 months ago I could not sit down after the back operation (19th August) - onwards and upwards!