30r20 70% HRR - 2min controlled pop (CTC) - "How To" video on installing Bat Logic erg adapter - Hayfever?

So firstly I think I have hayfever - feeling crappy last few days - high powered sneezing - slight pressure/pain around sinus eye area - runny nose? I don't know - anyway decided after yesterdays' rows and kettlebell workout plus pre work weight session this morning before work that lunchtime called for a 30r20 70% HRR - pace dropped of towards the end - not sure if that's the effect of the "illness" or the "drugs" (Sinutab and Centrine) not going to worry about it - still managed to get over 8k so no disaster.

Then as I had to wait for the showers in the gym I dialled in the 2 minutes for a controlled pop - target was r36 and 1:25 pace - slight problem with breathing right at the end - only to be expected I suppose.

Then I put a little video together showing the Bat Logic erg adapter and how to attach and detach it from the erg as a few people have asked (excuse the quality - a combination of my sinuses and other gym users may muffle some of the sound)

KettleBelled - 30r20 battle

Trained Friday lunchtime with a short sprint session. Saturday I was looking after my daughter as the wife was working - somehow ended up buying myself 2 16kg kettlebells at some point lol and that night once the dogs where walked and the baby was in bed I dropped in Facebook for suggestions as to a quick and easy session to which Ben Morris came back with "15 swings then drop to 10 press-ups on kettlebells, then 15 swings, then 9 press ups and repeat down to 1 press up" I did the swings with a single KB and got down to 7 press ups before I struggled and dropped to doing the press ups from the floor by the 5 - nice sweat on at the end - followed up with 3 by 10 double swings and then 3 by 10 shoulder press (standing) - Sunday out all day and Monday I had a half day in work then home to look after my daughter while mum worked at the same time I was hit by DOMS lol triceps are the worse followed by chest, backs of shoulder and inner thighs. So today when I got down at lunchtime to the erg it was painful to warm up - but - the good news is my heels have adapted to the "Ruby slippers" (BAT Logic) and I got through the row with no blister pads nore signs of blisters so looks like I have that sorted :o) - bad news is I blew about 20 minutes into the row and took a tactical break of about 30 to 60 seconds to regroup - actually finished the piece happy even though I had to stop. Hopefully the blood flow will help recovery also :o)

Turn a negative to a positive - perseverance - 30r20

So crappy week of training what with coming back sick from a Spa weekend (I knew relaxing was bad for you!) missed training due to "life", blisters from my new ruby slippers, a HD yesterdayand basically being pooped I was one training session away from the weekend which often means no training for me - I could of gone down and done a light 30min piece but after seeing Al Taylor post that he'd been off for the week and that he came back with a 75% 30r20 I got a spark (so thanks Al) that was a 30r20 at 80% HRR but first I needed to sort something out with the Ruby slippers and my blisters

So blister pads on the heels and foam padding in the shoes - 2 min warm up and a pop to the loo

So off I set and with the aim of hitting a HR of 160 then dropping pace all went quite well - especially bearing in mind the rubbish week of training I've had - in fact I was only 12m off my age group PB for the 30r20 (set in October of 8686m) and if I had of taken one more stroke I would have had it - but as I got ahead of myself I had to stop rowing with about 7 or 8 seconds left on the clock lol - next time then - I did have issues with the heels slipping up the back of the shoes today - but that I think was due to having the loo break and not tightening them up properly afterwards as I did a two minute cool down and I tightened them and rowed without that issue. So ended the week on a positive :o)

Nicely padded out 

 Got a bit sweaty alright!

Blistering pace - my ruby slippers need to know who's boss BATLogic

Didn't get time to write this up yesterday - basically my heels where in a bad state from the new Nike Omada rowing shoes after Tueasday - I went a size bigger than what I am as I heard the shoes where narrow fitting - maybe that caused the issue - could just be "new shoe syndrome" though as I tend to get blisters every time I buy new shoes no matter what they are for (hmm maybe I have weak skin) on Wednesday I wasn't rowing anyway as had appoinments for my daughter which took up a few hours during the day. So yesterday even though my heels looked like this ....

 I wanted to erg got set up and took a few strokes - yep that's feckin hurting! So i went and raided the first aid and got some padded plaster things and put them on - they where enough to reduce the pain to where I could row. Set up a 5k race warm up and got through that then set up a 1k just to test the waters and to get a film of the BAT Logic in action - unfortunately I HD'd - just too tired - been a long week. The good news is that my heels are staying down which is the big reason for the BAT Logic for me :o)

The vide below is from Bristol in October 

I set up a 500m just to get a completed row and recorded that also - even struggled to finish that - reckong the "relaxing Spa weekend" wore me out!

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