More mental than physical - 30 min TT

The culmination of the current training cycle was a 30 min TT which I headed up to the shed to complete last night, unfortunately I'm mentally not firing 100% as I am still without a job, we have a baby due in December and my daughter has just started school.. so there are times when I am rowing where I feel guilty and that I should be doing something for the family, like get a job, I do spend a hour or so every day searching and applying, but as yet although I have had positive feedback from the interviews the job hasn't come along :( so 12 minutes into it last night - down came the handle as the down "funk" got me. That hasn't made the negativity of my situation any better, so, tonight I grabbed the bull by the balls and went back out to finish what I started. I also set a reduced effort on myself of a simple r24 1:46 pace ignore the average/predicted finish and simply row every 30 seconds by counting to twelve, this seemed to work and looks like I got the pace about right as I was pulling up a little in the penultimate split. Happy with the result - the fact I finished it more than the score. Onward and Upwards!!

Last nights failure

30min Irish 40-49H Record

This was a training row - ie not a all out guns blazing kill myself TT - although at the end it got to feel a little like that lol - the idea on going downstairs (I'm in work BTW) was to row a sub 1:43.6 pace r26 (Current Irish 40-49H 30min Record is (was) 8686m) so after a 2k warm up with some r26 1:43 strokes (I know I went all out) I set off on the row - still suffering a little from the head cold which I think I might have expelled a large part of during the row if my t-shirt, erg rail and floor around me are anything to go by (must wipe that up) so without that there is obviously more in me at the moment but this was about putting a score down. Once I set off I found myself sat at 1:40 pace - I managed to let that slide to sub 1:42 and fixed my sights on that. Trying to stay strong in that middle third and then dig in for the last ten minutes. Come the last 2 minutes I just wanted it over with lol. A few moments of doubt but I have a few images I can bring to mind to get through these - at least they worked today.

Why this row - well during the week I though I had broken the 30min record so thought I better set that right - also with yesterdays power work my legs where tender so wanted to stay away from r20 - and with the head cold the high rate stuff was out - so r26/28 seemed like a good plan.

 

30min TT PB - Rowpro Race-night Series

So tonight was the Race Night Series on Rowpro - I signed up at the weekend for it and got the clearance from the Mrs :-D so left work and home to spend time with the baby before she went to bed and then did a few chores before heading out to the shed a little later than I wanted to.
So only time for a 2k warm up and then signed in to Rowpro race - and I crashed out - so signed in again - and I crashed out - rebooted the laptop - and it crashed -

Rebooted again and at this point I shut down my fans (24C and 61% hum in the shed!) and turned off the music and was about to tear something apart - so then I had a brain wave - put it into the erg and get the training effect - so I set up a 30min piece and set off - still carrying the groin/thigh/knee strains I wanted to be a little cautious at the start and so aimed at 1:42 split - but found myself after a little time sitting on 1:41.1 average - and wasn't to uncomfortable so I kept it there.
About 5k in the knee started acting up but although painful it was still moving so kept it going - found it a little tough about 10minutes out but just kept it rolling and then upped it with three minutes to go and inside the last minute I let Beowulf out to play.
PB by 11m - and plenty to come on the right day - but I'll let that day come to me

Signed into general chat and saw the 1 minutes being set up - missed the first heat but asked if I was still eligible to enter and got the ok so entered the second heat - wasn't all out as I'd only just finished the 30min :lol:

Then signed into the second 1 minute and crashed again - twice - eventually I managed to get my last 1 minute done - again not an all out affair as I need to be careful with the groin - especially after not warming up properly

Turns out I won racenight by the narrowest of margins  :-D which is unusual for a fat bloke