Full Marathon - Age Group PB and Irish Record (TBC)

Continuing with the Crazy Bear challenge with days lost and finishing line closing in I had to come up with a plan to try and get the remaining 7 half marathons in with 6 days left - simple - 1 a day and with a double up. Hmm but that was complicated when I offered to help out my father in law with some work on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday ... so 7 half marathons in effectively 3 days - bugger - ok then 3 HM's on two days and then a gentle one to get over the line - well if I'm doing three a day I might as well do a full marathon and so that was today's plan - get up at 6 and do a HM at the gym then home and refuel while doing a few chores and back to the gym for a full marathon. After which I was popping round to finish laying a laminate floor and then put a bed together.. good job I ain't working.

This mornings HM went pretty well - lifted the stroke rate to 22 to ease the pressure on the legs and kept it at 70% HRR finished with decent time of 1:18:28.2 or 1:51.6 ave.

So back in and a fiddle to get set up off I set the target was the current Irish 40-49H record of 1:53.1 or 2:39:06.3 set by Ally Cooper. I find a groove of sitting just below 1:50 pace rating 24 and felt confident of holding it - although the HR did rise quite quickly initially - so went with that - all was going well until about a hour from the end when I guess the earlier HM and lack of proper refueling took it's toll and had to draw on a lot of grit to try and even continue - took a few stops for water and chocolate but I'll be honest I was looking at the "wave" (the erg equivalent of the runners wall lol) well after what seemed like a eternity I did manage to get back into a groove but the initial plan was in tatters and it was a case of best of what was left - bearing in mind the circumstance I was happy with result and after all it is a new record and age group PB - plus only 4 HM's left to do now!

 the list above is missing a HM on the skierg

10k TT - Irish Record - Age Group PB - 21 million lifetime meters - CTC

Think the title sums it all up - after yesterday's aborted lunchtime row (too many "distractions" in the gym and was pretty bloody tired after the weekend) I realised I was only 10,718m short of 21 million meters - and today the rain caused a delay getting into work so that pretty much set up the session itself - 718m warm up then 10k TT - no point celebrating 21 million meters on a paddle - maybe it's my coming of age number :o) I went through 20 million meters on the 3rd of August - on the 19th August I was in hospital having part of one of my discs removed ... so by my calculations I've covers a million meters since the op lol

The row itself started of well enough - I knew my 40-49H Irish record was average of 1:44.3 (no not amazing by all standards) so set off rating 24 and found myself sitting at around 1:42 so then I figured I'd clip the 5k for the CTC as well.... got that and backed off as my little legs where tired - but made myself stay under the 1:44.3 and although tough - I was more tired than beat so kept the pressure on and managed a little lift inside the last 500m finishing on a 1:28 split - with a lot of sweat!

trials and tribulations - AGPB - Irish Record

So yesterday I was in the kitchen literally in tears from the pain down the right hip/lower back/leg/knee from merely doing a bit of housework – so back to the drugs and a early night. Today I managed to struggle through a 30 minute r20 piece – probably came out about 75% HRR with 8228m. So lunchtime I wanted to crack out a 10k piece – partly because I haven’t ranked on this season and partly to get my 20 million meters sorted out and so decided to target a hard one. Looking at this years 40-49 ranked 10k’s the obvious “carrot on the stick” was “Nik Fleming” with 36:00.0 (not sure if that was a r20 piece or what – but a nice pace target for me 1:48.0) as I set off I found myself knocking around the 1:45 pace at rate 24 and just went along with it – but just after halfway I really started to struggle both in terms of pain in knee (right one) as well as basic fitness – I actually put the handle down – for about 3-4 seconds – but then picked up and got back into the grove from just under 3k out I just started counting down the strokes – one stroke being over 10m meant from about 2800m I was simply counting backwards from 280 – managed to ramp it up a little at the end – and to my surprise bagged a Irish record (Just checked and I set that during the “Trying To Stay Strong” charity event - TTSS) so that was a nice surprise then :o)

oh yes - that puts me on 19,940,226m - getting there

 The mornings row

two 30r20's - one at 70% HRR and one at age group PB SB

Once again managed to get in early enough to do a 30min row before work - just - r20 and 70% HRR - felt good and managed to get it in under 1:50 pace which I was very happy with

So after saying I'd take it easy this week I got a bit of drive in me and took on the 30r20 TT at lunch - age group PB was 8686m so target 1:43.6 or better. 2k warm up with some r20 bursts and off we set. Got to the 6min mark and although tough I was still in control so kept the pressure on. (I know from experience that the 6 minute mark is a good time to adjust if needed - it should be tough but not quite coming apart at this point) I kept the sub 1:43 pace going up for the first third and then backed of slightly through the middle - not sure where my "fitness" is at the moment. Then once inside the last ten picked it up again and drove for home in the last two or three minutes - overall 30r20 PB is 8,855m 1:41.6 which may be on in the coming months ...

Happens to be a seasons best 30 minute as well :-D

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.